Meta is actively taking down child sexual abuse material: MeitY official

Meta’s content moderation systems came under scrutiny after a BBC Eye investigation earlier reported observing around 30 unique advertisements on its platforms allegedly promoting CSAM.

Meta is actively taking down Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and the company is cautious of such content being posted on its platforms—Instagram and Facebook—said an official from the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY), which held multiple meetings earlier this month with the global and Indian teams of Meta to discuss a myriad of issues including the takedown of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Facebook reel.

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“We are not seeing that kind of content (CSAM) coming up in the same way, and platforms are being more cautious. Meta is also putting in place its own filters and working to identify unlawful content, with its content moderators becoming more sensitive to the Indian context. But we have to keep watching this. We cannot say overnight that we are fully satisfied,” said the official requesting anonymity.

Meta’s content moderation systems came under scrutiny after a BBC Eye investigation earlier reported observing around 30 unique advertisements on its platforms allegedly promoting CSAM.

Officials are expected to meet Meta again by the end of this week in which the social media company is expected to furnish a report on how many posts and content they have taken down from the public domain in compliance with the Indian laws, share details of how it is decided as to which demography the boosted content (pay money to reach a wider audience) is shown to, and tweaking community guidelines to adapt to the Indian context, said another official. Meta did not immediately respond to HT.

“The concern is not about the government trying to censor content to keep something out of coverage. The intent is to ensure that Indian laws are followed and that social media platforms do not create situations that go against the social norms and standards we have to uphold. Many Western countries, including Australia, the UK and France, are grappling with similar issues. We recognise that we have to strike the right balance. Issues such as addiction, gaming and CSAM all have to be addressed,” added the first official quoted above.

HT has also learnt that MeitY has asked Meta to hire people who speak languages other than English and Hindi in India to determine illegal content on Instagram in other regional languages.

According to the BBC report, Instagram displayed ads containing phrases such as “rape video” and “child video” that directed users to Telegram channels allegedly selling CSAM. Thereafter, MeitY issued a notice directing Meta to immediately disable all Instagram advertisements and content that allegedly promote or facilitate CSEAM.

On safe harbour to social media companies under section 79 of the IT Act, the first official said, “On CSAM, there is no safe harbour if you violate the law. That message has gone out clearly.” However, the official added that it is not upon MeitY to give or take an intermediary’s safe harbour, and ultimately, that decision will have to be taken by a court.

One can be persecuted if they are in violation of Section 67B of the IT Act - which punishes any person who publishes, transmits, creates, browses, downloads, or distributes electronic material that shows children in a sexually explicit or indecent way, or who grooms or exploits children online.

In previous meetings with Meta, the government discussed at length how their algorithms work - specially in light of the PM’s Facebook reel being taken down, said the second official. PM Modi’s reel was temporarily restricted on July 28 for about five hours allegedly due to an error in the company’s automated systems. In the reel, the PM addressed nationwide protests over the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET-UG) paper leak.

One of the officials said that no discussions happened around the Whatsapp username issue with the Meta team, as this is not a matter unique to WhatsApp but to other messaging platforms like Signal, Telegram, Arratai, etc as well. HT had earlier reported that MeitY is working on common standards for messaging platforms operating in India. The government believes it cannot block WhatsApp from rolling out the feature, while letting Signal and Telegram use it. The government’s concern with the username feature is that it could fuel impersonation, online fraud and digital arrest scams while making law enforcement investigations more difficult.