Instagram running ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India, BBC finds
A BBC investigation has found that Instagram is running advertisements in India that promote child sexual abuse material (CSAM), raising concerns about the platform's content moderation systems in one of its biggest markets.
Background
- Instagram's parent company Meta (formerly Facebook) operates a massive moderation system that relies on both AI and human reviewers, but enforcement varies enormously by country and language. India is Meta's biggest market by users, with over 300 million Instagram accounts.
- "Child sexual abuse material" (CSAM) is the formal term for what is commonly called child pornography; tech platforms are legally required in most countries to detect and remove it. India's IT Rules (2021) hold platforms liable for harmful content but enforcement has been inconsistent.
- The BBC investigation found that Instagram's ad-targeting algorithms in India were serving ads for escort services that explicitly advertised access to minors. This follows years of criticism that Meta's moderation is weaker in non-English languages and in developing countries where local laws and enforcement are less stringent than in the US or EU.
- The discovery is particularly significant because India is currently drafting new digital regulations (the Digital India Act) that will determine how strictly platforms like Meta must police content — and whether they face criminal liability for failures like this.