New Delhi: Social media giant Meta has announced a series of enhanced measures to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) across its platforms following a notice issued by the Central Government over reports of Instagram advertisements allegedly promoting such illegal content.
In a detailed blog post released on Tuesday, Meta described child exploitation as a “horrific crime” and reiterated its commitment to preventing abusive content from appearing on its platforms. The company said it actively works every day to detect, remove, and prevent child exploitation through advanced technology, artificial intelligence, and strict enforcement mechanisms.
The statement comes days after the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) served a notice to Meta, directing it to immediately disable advertisements and content promoting or facilitating access to child sexual abuse material on Instagram. The ministry has also sought a detailed explanation from the company within seven days.
Meta clarified that it does not knowingly target users with advertisements featuring children based on inappropriate interests, calling such allegations “categorically inaccurate.”
“On the contrary, we use advanced technology to identify suspicious behaviour related to child exploitation. Last year alone, we automatically removed over four million suspicious accounts from Facebook and Instagram,” the company stated.
According to Meta, its enforcement systems had already detected and disabled several policy-violating advertisements and the accounts responsible even before the recent cases were highlighted publicly. Following an internal investigation, the company removed additional advertisements, disabled more accounts, and blocked URLs linked to exploitative content.
The company revealed that improvements in its AI-powered detection systems led to the automatic removal of more than 36 million pieces of child exploitation-related content worldwide last year, along with over four million suspicious accounts.
In India alone, Meta said its AI tools identified suspicious off-platform links and coordinated exploitative activities, resulting in the removal of approximately 1.6 lakh accounts during the past six months.
The government’s action followed reports that Instagram allegedly displayed paid advertisements containing terms such as “rape video” and “child video,” which reportedly redirected users to Telegram channels offering illegal child abuse material for sale.
The issue gained further attention after a BBC investigation alleged that Meta’s recommendation algorithms had promoted videos containing child sexual abuse material and exposed weaknesses in the company’s content moderation systems. The report also claimed that similar advertisements had appeared on both Facebook and Instagram despite Meta’s policies explicitly prohibiting sexually explicit and exploitative content.
Following the controversy, Union Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw directed MeitY officials to summon Meta and seek accountability over the alleged lapses.
The latest developments place Meta under increased regulatory scrutiny in India, with the government emphasizing zero tolerance toward online child exploitation and demanding stronger safeguards from digital platforms. Meta has assured users and regulators that it will continue strengthening its AI-based detection systems, enforcement actions, and platform safety measures to prevent the misuse of its services.
