Social media major Meta has agreed to report instances of child sexual abuse to the appropriate law enforcement agencies in India as the Centre steps up pressure on online platforms to strengthen safeguards for children.
News agency PTI reported government sources as saying that the online safety of children is a “fundamental principle” for social media platforms operating in India and is “non-negotiable”.
They described Meta’s decision as a first step towards making online platforms safer for children. The government is also holding discussions with other platforms on proactively identifying, removing, and reporting harmful content .
The government has warned that action would be taken against platforms that fail to introduce adequate measures to protect children online.
The development follows months of regulatory scrutiny of Meta’s platforms, particularly Instagram, over the alleged circulation and promotion of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
Meta’s CSAM Troubles In India
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is currently conducting an inquiry into allegations that paid advertisements linked to child sexual exploitation and abuse material were appearing on Instagram.
The Commission had summoned senior Meta India executives in September as part of the inquiry, following a BBC investigation in July alleging that Instagram ads were directing users towards Telegram channels offering CSAM material for sale.
The allegations also resulted in MeitY summoning Meta executives.
Meta subsequently said it removed the violating advertisements, disabled associated accounts and blocked URLs linked to policy-violating content. The company also said it automatically removed more than 4 Mn suspicious accounts globally over the previous year and approximately 1.6 Lakh accounts in India in the preceding six months.
Meta said its systems use automated and manual reviews to identify violating advertisements and that its enforcement systems had already detected and disabled several of the accounts and ads highlighted in the reports.
However, the company also acknowledged that no review system can catch every violation.
The issue subsequently moved beyond MeitY, with the NCPCR launching a formal inquiry and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) seeking reports from government agencies and the Delhi Police over the allegations. The latter also sought clarity on whether mandatory reporting obligations under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act were followed.
Meta’s Content Moderation Under Radar
In August, the government held multiple rounds of discussions with Meta’s global leadership over CSAM, deepfakes, unlabelled AI-generated content and the company’s recommendation algorithms.
The Centre asked Meta to strengthen CSAM detection, increase human oversight of moderation and improve safeguards for content in Indian languages and local contexts.
Government officials also questioned why harmful AI-generated content could reappear even after being flagged and why unlabelled synthetic content continued to remain accessible on Meta’s platforms.
The government has maintained that its engagement with Meta is aimed at enforcing Indian laws rather than restricting legitimate speech.
The scrutiny has gone beyond CSAM, with the company facing several other content moderation-related issues in India. In July, Facebook temporarily restricted a video posted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Meta subsequently attributing the incident to an error in its AI-powered content moderation systems. The episode prompted the Centre to summon Meta’s global public policy leadership and resulted in an apology from the company.
The latest development also comes shortly after Meta agreed worth up to $18 Bn in the US over allegations that Facebook and Instagram harmed children and teenagers.
Apart from the financial settlement, Meta agreed to introduce several safeguards for teenage users in participating US jurisdictions, including limits on daily usage, restrictions on overnight access, stronger parental controls, age-assurance measures and an option for a non-algorithmic feed.
The settlement has raised questions over whether similar protections should be extended to Indian users. India is separately considering stronger age-based safeguards for social media users, while several states have explored restrictions on children’s access to social platforms.
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