Meta submits reply on Instagram CSAM ads, government reviewing response: IT secretary

IT Secretary S Krishnan has confirmed that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has received Meta’s reply to its notice over child sexual abuse material (CSAM) advertisements on Instagram and is currently examining it before deciding on the next course of action.

Speaking to news agency PTI, Krishnan said the response was received on Saturday, which was the deadline set by the government for Meta to submit its explanation. The reply comes after the tech giant received a stern notice over CSAM in paid ads on Instagram.

MeitY had also directed the company to disable all advertisements and content promoting or facilitating access to CSAM while demanding a detailed explanation from the social media giant.

“On the CSAM content, we had issued a notice to Meta, and the reply has been received. It is currently under examination,” Krishnan said.

“And based on an examination of the reply, appropriate action would be taken,” he added.

What had Meta said on CSAM?

After receiving the notice from MeitY, Meta had outlined its efforts to combat CSAM across its apps via AI-powered detection and large-scale enforcement. The company also rejected allegations that it knowingly targeted users with advertisements related to child sexual exploitation material in India.

The social media company said it removed more than four million suspicious accounts from Facebook and Instagram globally during the previous year, along with taking down 36 million pieces of content related to child exploitation. Meta also stated that its artificial intelligence-based detection systems helped remove around 160,000 accounts in India over the past six months.

“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,” the company said. “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.”

Govt receives reply on username feature

Krishnan, meanwhile, also said the government has received responses from messaging platforms over their username features and will announce its position after examining the replies.

“On the usernames issue, yes, the responses have been received from some of the platforms. We are examining those responses, and we will make available our stance,” Krishnan said.

The Centre had earlier issued notices to WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal over their username features, which allow users to communicate without sharing their phone numbers. The companies were given 7-10 days to respond to the government’s queries, Krishnan said, adding that the ministry would also need time to examine those responses.

Notably, the government had first issued a notice to WhatsApp on July 1, asking the Meta-owned messaging platform not to roll out its proposed username feature until consultations with the government were completed. The Centre had raised concerns that the feature could increase online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks.

The IT ministry later sent similar notices to Telegram and Signal, seeking details on how their existing username features address concerns related to fraud and impersonation.