India Takes Action Against Meta for Child Exploitation Ads
July 6 – The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has sent a strong warning to Meta regarding inappropriate advertisements of child sexual abuse appearing on its platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp.
On Saturday, the Indian government demanded that Meta provide an explanation within a week about the ads. The ministry highlighted in a statement that it has directed Instagram to promptly remove all advertisements and content that promote or enable access to child sexual exploitation and abuse material.
Reports from BBC indicate that some of these ads were allegedly leading users to Telegram pages that offered such abusive content for sale. In response, Telegram announced that it has taken down over 274,000 groups this year due to similar issues.
A spokesperson for Meta emphasized the company’s strict stance against child sexual abuse material. They stated, “We follow a zero-tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing this type of content.” The spokesperson added that while the company employs advanced AI technology to identify violating content, they continuously face challenges from those trying to evade detection among its vast user base of 3.5 billion people.
