Centre to Summon Meta Officials Over Child Abuse Ads on Instagram

July 3, 2026

New Delhi: Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed officials at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to summon Meta officials over Instagram advertisements promoting child sexual abuse in India, seeking an explanation from the social media giant over the issue, said sources on Friday.

The development comes hours after the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) published a report which claimed that Instagram, a popular photo and video sharing app, has been running advertisements that promote child sexual abuse material in India. The report said advertisements are published on Instagram after they are approved by the app’s moderation technology.

Under its investigation, BBC’s World Service found that the advertisements use terms such as “rape video” and “child video”. It then links the users to channels on Telegram where they can buy such materials for Rs 99.

The British media outlet also contacted Meta over the issue, which told that such advertisements and the accounts that posted them have been suspended, while some URLs have also been blocked. “We continue to run proactive detection technology on ads once they’re live, and anyone can report an ad to us that they think breaks our rules,” Meta, previously known as Facebook, said.

Meanwhile, Telegram said it has removed over 2.74 lakh channels and groups in 2026 that promote child sexual abuse.

Meta summoned for second time in a week

This is the second time this week when Meta has been summoned by the MeitY. On Wednesday, the social media giant was summoned over its proposed ‘username’ feature on popular messaging app WhatsApp. The summon was issued to Meta over fears that the new feature could be used “identity spoofing and impersonation”.

It also directed Meta to not roll out the feature till it gives satisfactory answers to the government.

However, WhatsApp clarified that steps have been taken by it to prevent scams and impersonation. “Other users need to know the exact username to message you. We will limit how many new people an account can contact, block repeated attempts to guess someone’s username key, and have systems to detect and remove activity showing common impersonation and abuse patterns,” it said in a statement.

Other than WhatsApp, the government also summoned Telegram and Signal over their ‘username’ feature.