Meta addresses Indian notice over Instagram ads featuring child sexual‑abuse content

Meta acknowledged that some Instagram advertisements in India violated its policies against child sexual exploitation and said it is taking “aggressive” steps to remove such material. The company highlighted AI‑powered detection that automatically removed over four million suspicious accounts worldwide last year and 36 million pieces of exploitative content. In India, the tools disabled 160,000 accounts in the past six months and blocked URLs linking to illegal material. Meta said it had already identified and disabled several offending ads before the notice arrived and would disable all ads that promote or facilitate access to child sexual abuse material. The Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology issued a stern notice demanding the immediate removal of the ads and a detailed explanation within seven days. Meta reaffirmed a “zero‑tolerance” policy, noted collaboration with authorities and industry groups, and pledged to improve its detection and review systems.