NCPCR Meets Meta India Chief, Takes Up Instagram's Child Abuse Material Ad

The matter concerns child sexual abuse material and advertisements related to such content on Meta's social media platform Instagram.

The NCPCR had taken suo motu cognisance of a report and issued a notice to Meta Platforms on July 3, seeking a response in the matter.

Source : ABP Majha

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Key points generated by AI, verified by newsroom

• NCPCR met Meta officials investigating child sexual abuse material.
• Report reveals Meta ran CSAM ads despite government orders.
• Hundreds of AI-generated CSAM ads, 84 specifically in India.

Senior Meta officials on Wednesday met representatives of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) over a case involving child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Instagram. The meeting lasted nearly an hour.

The Meta India MD and Head were not present at the meeting.

Case Involves Child Sexual Abuse Content On Instagram

The matter concerns child sexual abuse material and advertisements related to such content on Meta's social media platform Instagram.

The NCPCR had taken suo motu cognisance of a report and issued a notice to Meta Platforms Inc. on July 3, seeking a response in the matter.

Meta submitted its response around a week later. Following this, the NCPCR decided to initiate a formal investigation into the case.

Several Government Bodies Taking Action

The NCPCR is not the only government body looking into the matter. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), among other government institutions, are also taking action in the case.

Meta Continues To Run Ads With Child Sexual Abuse

Meta ran hundreds of paid advertisements featuring artificial intelligence-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including dozens in India, over the past 10 months, according to a new report by US-based campaigners.

The findings come two months after the Indian government ordered Meta to remove all ads and content promoting CSAM on Instagram. The order followed a BBC Eye investigation that found Instagram was running paid advertisements promoting CSAM in India.

332 Ads Identified On Facebook, Instagram

The Washington-based Tech Transparency Project (TTP) said it identified 332 advertisements containing CSAM that ran on Facebook and Instagram. The majority — 274 ads — appeared in August this year.

The TTP report, published on Tuesday, said it identified several photographs of real children, including a member of a European royal family, which were used in the advertisements and subsequently manipulated using AI.

More than a dozen advertisements continued to appear on Meta's platforms even after TTP informed the company about its findings, the report said.

84 Ads Ran In India

Of the 332 advertisements identified by TTP, 84 ran in India. According to the report, 78 of those ads were published after the Indian government's order to remove CSAM and its meeting with senior Meta officials.

Following the BBC investigation, several Indian agencies, including the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and the National Human Rights Commission, said they were examining the matter.

Meta Says It Does Not Tolerate Child Exploitation

Responding to the TTP findings, Meta said it does not tolerate "nudify apps or any kind of child exploitation, whether real or AI-generated".

"We don't tolerate nudify apps or any kind of child exploitation, whether real or AI-generated. These criminals constantly shift tactics to evade detection, which is why we keep strengthening our detection and enforcement," the company said in a statement.

Meta also told the BBC during its investigation that when it becomes aware of apparent child exploitation, it reports the material to the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), in compliance with its legal obligations.

NCMEC is the centralised global reporting system for the online sexual exploitation of children.