India Holds Meta Accountable for Instagram’s Dark Ad Problem

India is demanding answers from Meta after Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse material surfaced. The government is not playing nice.

A BBC investigation set up a test Instagram account in India. It followed ten women posting lifestyle content in suggestive clothing. Within a week, the account started receiving ads for explicit adult content. Days later, ads showing children in sexually suggestive situations appeared alongside adults.

The ads included search terms like “rape video” and “child video.” They linked to Telegram channels selling illegal content for as little as 99 rupees. The test account alone saw roughly 30 distinct ads promoting child sexual abuse material and about 20 more for explicit adult content.

Meta’s initial response was tone-deaf. When the BBC flagged one ad through Instagram’s reporting tool, Meta claimed the ad “does not go against our community standards.” Only after direct pressure from journalists did Meta disable several ads, suspend offending accounts, and block related Telegram links.

Meta called child exploitation “a horrific crime” and said it removed more ads and accounts beyond those flagged. The company admitted, “No system is perfect, and our review process may not detect all policy violations.”

India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, led by Ahswini Vaishnaw, is summoning Meta executives for an explanation. An official confirmed, “IT minister has directed MeitY officials to summon Meta on the matter of Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India.”

The country’s intermediary rules require platforms to remove unlawful content once notified by a government agency or court. They must maintain grievance and takedown mechanisms to keep safe harbor protection under Section 79 of the IT Act.

Section 67B of the IT Act criminalizes creating, publishing, transmitting, or storing child sexual abuse material online. Platforms that fail to meet due diligence risk losing legal protection.

The crackdown follows October 2023 notices sent to X, YouTube, and Telegram warning them to remove child sexual abuse material. Telegram reported removing more than 274,000 groups and channels related to such content in 2026 using automated and human moderation.

India received 1.9 million tipline reports in 2025 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Cyber Tipline. Only the U.S. recorded more, at two million. Most of these reports originate from Meta platforms, according to the Mumbai-based Rati Foundation.

Meta also claims to use advanced AI to detect violating content and reports apparent child exploitation cases to NCMEC as required by law. Despite disabling more than 4 million suspicious accounts in 2025, Instagram’s recommendation system still pushed illegal ads to a test account in 2026.

The Indian government’s move signals increasing scrutiny of Big Tech’s role in policing harmful content. Meta faces a tough line: clean up or face legal consequences. So far, Meta’s “zero-tolerance” stance hasn’t stopped the ads from slipping through.

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