“Categorically inaccurate,” says Meta after probe into alleged Instagram CSAM ads triggers government scrutiny

Meta has defended its child safety practices after a media investigation alleged that Instagram approved paid advertisements promoting Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM), triggering scrutiny from the Indian government.

The investigation claimed Instagram served advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material and directing users to external messaging platforms, raising questions about the effectiveness of Meta’s advertising review process.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) responded by issuing a notice to the company, asking how such advertisements were approved despite its moderation safeguards. It directed Meta to immediately remove the reported advertisements, explain its review process and detail the steps being taken to prevent similar incidents. The ministry also sought information on how advertisements are vetted before publication and what additional measures are being introduced to strengthen enforcement against child sexual exploitation content.

Meta later told the government that it had removed the advertisements flagged in the reports. It also reiterated that it would continue working with Indian authorities and said certain features, including WhatsApp usernames, have not yet been rolled out in the country.

Addressing the controversy in a blog post, Meta said: “We’re aware of recent news reports about Instagram ads in India that violated our policies against child exploitation. And we want to be clear: we take these concerns seriously, we never want this content on our platforms, and we’re committed to improving our efforts to combat it.”

The company disclosed that it removed more than 6.9 million accounts linked to child sexual exploitation worldwide in the first six months of 2026. More than one million of those accounts were found commenting on or engaging with exploitative content.

Meta also sought to rebut suggestions that its systems intentionally surfaced such advertisements.

“It is categorically inaccurate to suggest that we’d knowingly and deliberately target ads featuring children to people based on an inappropriate interest in children. Quite the opposite; we use technology to identify accounts that have shown potentially suspicious activity related to children, and we automatically removed over 4 million of these accounts last year,” it said.

The blog also describes how Meta identifies abusive content, saying its enforcement combines automated detection systems, behavioural signals, hash-matching technology and human reviewers to detect exploitative content, accounts and coordinated networks.

The company cited India-specific enforcement figures as well. “We have advanced AI detection tools set up to identify when individuals post suspicious off-platform links in coordination with other signals indicating child exploitative activity. In the last six months alone, this led to the removal of 160,000 accounts in India.”

Meta also pointed to its advertising policies, which prohibit any content that sexually exploits or endangers children. Under its Child Sexual Exploitation, Abuse and Nudity policy, advertisements must comply with the company’s Community Standards and cannot contain nudity or depict child abuse, except in limited contexts such as artwork, cartoons, films or video games. It added that apparent instances of child exploitation are reported to the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), in accordance with applicable laws.

The company’s latest India Monthly Report, published under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, offers a glimpse into the scale of its enforcement. During May 2026 alone, Meta actioned 567,100 pieces of Instagram content under its “Child Endangerment – Sexual Exploitation” policy, with 98.7% of those violations detected before they were reported by users. Another 402,400 pieces of content involving child nudity and physical abuse were actioned on Instagram, with a proactive detection rate of 98.8%.

On Facebook, the company took action against 306,600 pieces of content related to child sexual exploitation and another 460,300 involving child nudity and physical abuse. The corresponding proactive detection rates stood at 99.3% and 99.6%, respectively.

Meta said it has also strengthened protections for teenagers, tightened direct messaging safeguards and increased action against accounts that repeatedly violate its child safety policies.