‘Categorically inaccurate’: Meta responds to Instagram child abuse ads in India

‘Categorically inaccurate’: Meta responds to Instagram child abuse ads in India

Days after the Centre issued a stern notice to the big tech firm, Meta rejected suggestions that it “knowingly” targeted users with child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM)-related advertisements in India.

The Centre had in a notice directed Meta to immediately disable Instagram advertisements. (REUTERS)

In a blog post on Tuesday, Meta said, “It is categorically inaccurate to suggest that we’d knowingly and deliberately target ads featuring children to people based on an inappropriate interest in children.”

The firm said that on the contrary, it uses “technology to identify accounts that have shown potentially suspicious activity related to children”, saying it had automatically removed over 4 million of such accounts in 2025.

“We’re aware of recent news reports about Instagram ads in India that violated our policies against child exploitation. And we want to be clear: we take these concerns seriously, we never want this content on our platforms, and we’re committed to improving our efforts to combat it,” said Meta in the post, as it explained its ad review process, and child safety enforcement measures.

The Centre had in a notice directed the California-headquartered company to immediately disable Instagram advertisements and content allegedly promoting or facilitating such content.

The action came after a BBC Eye investigation reported finding around 30 unique Instagram advertisements allegedly promoting child sexual abuse material. According to the report, Instagram displayed advertisements containing phrases such as “rape video” and “child video” that directed users to Telegram channels allegedly selling child sexual abuse material. The BBC said Meta removed several advertisements, disabled multiple accounts and blocked violating URLs after the findings were flagged.

Following the BBC report, the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) issued a notice on July 4 directing Meta to immediately disable all Instagram advertisements and content that allegedly promote or facilitate CSEAM. The ministry also gave the company seven days to submit a detailed explanation on how such advertisements were allowed to appear on the platform. The deadline for submitting the explanation is July 11.

A MeitY official said the blog post was not the explanation the ministry had sought from Meta in its notice and that the company is still required to submit its detailed response by July 11. A person aware of the matter at Meta said the blog post was part of the company's ongoing processes and efforts to explain its child safety measures and was not issued in response to MeitY's notice.

Meta also said it had begun taking enforcement action before the BBC investigation was brought to its attention. “Before these cases were brought to our attention, our enforcement systems had already identified and disabled several of the violating ads and the accounts behind them,” it said in the blog post. It added that its subsequent investigation “led to additional action, including removing further ads, disabling accounts, and blocking URLs linked to policy-violating content.”

Meta highlighted that advanced AI detection tools led to the removal of 160,000 accounts in India over the last six months and that between October and December 2025, it removed 13 million pieces of child sexual exploitation content across Facebook and Instagram, “over 96% of which we found and proactively addressed, before anyone reported it.”

Meanwhile, Meta also acknowledged limitations in its enforcement systems, stating, “We recognise that no system is perfect and that determined criminals will continue to try to exploit our platform, including through our advertising systems.” It added, “Our review process may not catch every violation, but we’re continuously working to stay ahead of bad actors through our robust ad review process.”

Meta said it regularly publishes global and India-specific transparency reports detailing its enforcement against child exploitation and other policy violations, and has appointed statutory compliance officers in India under the IT Rules, 2021.