The Indian government has warned of action against two of Meta’s platforms, Instagram and WhatsApp, within a week over the presence of Child Sexual Exploitative & Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram, according to Indian broadcaster DD News.
The government directed Instagram “immediately disable all advertisements and content that promote” child abuse and has sought a detailed explanation from Meta within seven days, the report said.
This comes days after an investigation by the BBC revealed Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India. According to the BBC, the ads use terms including “rape video” and “child video” and link users to channels on the messaging app Telegram, where they can buy the material for as little as ₹99 (~$1). Hours after the report was published, the Indian government said it had summoned representatives of Instagram’s parent company Meta over the advertisements.
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Ads on Instagram are only published after first being approved by its moderation technology. The BBC stated that when it reported one of the ads, the platform responded saying the post did not violate its “community guidelines.”
A Meta spokesperson told CNBC that the company has a “zero tolerance policy” for child abuse-related content and that it is using “AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals.” The spokesperson added that Meta is “in a constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5 billion users and try to evade our detection.”
According to CNBC, Meta does not face an immediate risk of being fine in India. However, it has come under sharp regulatory scrutiny in its biggest market. India has the largest audience base for Instagram with over 480 million users, more than double of U.S. users as of 2025, according to Statista.
Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research, said this was a “wake-up call for Meta to tighten its compliance and control for its platforms” as the Indian government is keen “to tighten the leash over these massive digital platforms.”
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Last week, WhatsApp came under fire for the roll-out of its username feature. The government claimed the feature could increase cybercrime incidents and has directed the platform to pause its plans.
Meta defended the introduction of usernames, calling it a “major privacy feature” designed to help people stay connected without giving away phone numbers.
Previously, Elon Musk’s X landed in a similar controversy, after the AI chatbot Grok was used to make sexualized images of nonconsenting individuals, including minors. The Indian government had directed X to immediately remove all vulgar, obscene and unlawful content—particularly material generated by Grok—or face legal action.