India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a formal notice to Meta ordering the immediate removal of paid Instagram advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material. The government gave the tech giant a strict seven-day deadline to explain in writing how its internal moderation systems approved the harmful content and to detail future safeguards.
The regulatory action follows a July 3 investigation by BBC Eye. Journalists operating a test account in India discovered Instagram’s automated advertising algorithm approved roughly 30 unique paid promotions containing explicit search terms.
These approved advertisements redirected users to third-party channels on the messaging application Telegram. Sellers on those external channels offered the illegal explicit material for as little as 99 rupees.
Meta’s automated review infrastructure initially failed to flag the content as a violation of its community standards. The company only suspended the offending accounts and blocked the external links after journalists directly contacted Meta executives about the algorithmic failures.
Mounting Regulatory Pressure
The notice marks the second time in less than a week the Indian government has initiated direct regulatory intervention against a Meta property.
Just days prior, the Centre demanded that WhatsApp pause the rollout of its proposed “username” feature. Officials cited escalating risks of impersonation, phishing, and digital arrest scams associated with the update.
The current crackdown on Instagram falls under India’s 2021 Information Technology Rules. Those specific regulations hold social media intermediaries legally liable if they fail to promptly eliminate illegal content from their networks.