Centre tells Meta to disable ads promoting child sexual abuse material

The Union government has issued a notice to social media conglomerate Meta, directing it to disable all advertisements and content allegedly promoting access to child sexual abuse material, ANI reported.

The government has demanded that the company provide a detailed explanation on the matter within seven days, the news agency quoted unidentified sources as saying.

On Friday, the BBC reported that it had found that social media platform Instagram, which is owned by Meta, had been running paid advertisements that promote child sexual abuse material in India.

Publishing or transmitting child sexual abuse material is illegal and constitutes a serious criminal offence under the 2000 Information Technology Act and the 2012 Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The advertisements use phrases such as “rape video” and “child video”, and direct users to channels on the messaging application Telegram, where such material can be purchased, the BBC reported.

Advertisements on Instagram are published only after they are approved by its moderation technology.

Meta subsequently told the BBC that the material being reported, besides other similar advertisements, had been removed and the accounts posting it were suspended. It also told the BBC that “no system is perfect, and our review process may not detect all policy violations”.

“We continue to run proactive detection technology on ads once they’re live,...

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