Meta’s woes deepen in India as child abuse ads on Instagram draw government ire

The Indian government is escalating its scrutiny of Meta's major platforms, WhatsApp and Instagram, after disturbing allegations surfaced regarding child abuse advertisements. On Saturday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a serious notice to Meta, demanding an immediate response to the presence of Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid ads on Instagram. According to a report from DD News, the government has instructed Instagram to promptly eliminate any advertisements promoting child abuse and has requested a comprehensive explanation from Meta within a week. This regulatory warning follows a BBC investigation that revealed Instagram was running paid promotions for child sexual abuse material within India. Neil Shah, the vice president of research at Counterpoint Research, characterized this incident as a crucial moment for Meta to enhance its compliance and oversight across its platforms. He noted that the Indian government is intensifying its control over large digital entities. Earlier this year, the European Commission also reprimanded Meta for failing to prevent children under 13 from accessing its platforms, potentially exposing the company to fines of up to 6% of its global annual revenue if confirmed. While there is currently no immediate threat of a fine in India, the scrutiny is intensifying in a market where Instagram boasts over 480 million users—more than double that of the U.S. Furthermore, with over 400 million Facebook users, India represents Meta's largest audience globally. In addition to Instagram's issues, Meta's messaging service, WhatsApp, which has more than 500 million users in India, received a warning regarding its new username feature. The government expressed concerns that this feature could lead to increased cybercrime incidents, resulting in a directive to halt its rollout. Meta defended the username introduction as a significant privacy enhancement, aimed at helping users connect without revealing their phone numbers. Reema Bhattacharya, head of Asia research at Verisk Maplecroft, stated that India is becoming a more exacting regulatory environment, urging companies to be prepared for increased engagement from regulators on various matters, including online safety and data governance.