New Delhi, July 6:
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has directed Meta to disable the advertisements and content promoting and facilitating access to child sexual exploitative and abuse material (CSEAM) on Instagram, according to government sources. It has also sought an explanation on the issue.
“The Ministry has ordered Instagram to disable such advertisements. The government has also demanded a detailed explanation on the action taken and other relevant information within seven days. A notice in this regard was issued on Saturday,” said a source.
It is learnt that the notice was sent following a directive from IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to senior Ministry officials. Further course of action will be decided after reviewing the reply, said the source.
In response to a query on the notice, a Meta spokesperson pointed to an earlier statement shared after the BBC report came out, where it said it had a “zero tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing CSAM”. It had added that while it deployed technology to detect such advertisements, it was in a “constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5 billion users and try to evade our detection”.
The move came a day after the BBC Eye published its investigation revealing that Instagram had allegedly been running “paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India” and that such advertisements linked users to channels on Telegram, where they could buy the material.