New Delhi: The Centre has issued a notice to Meta over Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on its social media platform Instagram, sources said Sunday. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has ordered Instagram to disable all advertisements and content that promote or facilitate access to such material, seeking a detailed explanation within seven days.
CSEAM refers to material containing any form of sexual images of a child who is abused or sexually exploited, according to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal.
The notice was issued Saturday evening, according to sources, a day after IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw directed MeitY officials to summon Meta over the alleged ads on Instagram. The ministry has demanded information on the action taken and asked Meta to explain how such content appeared as paid advertisements despite the platform’s moderation policies. Officials have sought answers on how the ads bypassed Meta’s pre-publication review and moderation process.
The action follows an investigation by BBC Eye, which reported that Instagram displayed paid ads promoting child sexual abuse material to users in India. The report said the ads contained keywords and links to Telegram channels where the content was sold—in some cases for Rs 99. According to the report, a test account created to examine how the platform recommends content began receiving explicit advertisements after following a small number of profiles posting suggestive content, and later received those depicting children in sexually suggestive situations.
The BBC said it documented around 30 advertisements promoting such material and about 20 featuring adult pornography on the account. It added that Meta disabled advertisements, suspended accounts, removed content and blocked URLs only after being contacted for comment.
Meta has, however, called the characterisation categorically inaccurate, saying that no no system is perfect and that its review process may not detect all policy violations.
The BBC also reported two Telegram channels selling such material. One was taken down, and the other continued posting. Telegram said it has removed more than 274,000 groups and channels linked to such material in 2026.
The Indian government has said that it maintains a zero-tolerance approach, requiring platforms to detect, remove and report such content. Authorities have previously blocked websites hosting such material based on lists received from Interpol through the Central Bureau of Investigation.
The notice is the second regulatory action against Meta within a week. On 1 July, MeitY directed the company to pause the rollout of WhatsApp’s username feature in India and submit details on safeguards, citing risks of fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation.
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