Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta hit with strict government action in India over child abuse content on its social media platform.
According to CNBC, the Indian government has warned of action against two of Meta’s three major platforms, WhatsApp and Instagram, within a week, over the growing regulatory risks.
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Saturday, July 4, issued a “stern notice to Meta over the presence of Child Sexual Exploitative & Abuse Material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram.”
As per a report by Indian state broadcaster DD News, the government has directed Instagram to “immediately disable all advertisements and content that promote” child abuse and has sought a detailed explanation from Meta within seven days.
Meta ‘zero tolerance policy’
The regulatory warning came after an investigation by the BBC revealed on Friday that Instagram was running paid advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material in India.
A spokesperson for the tech giant told CBNC in email that Meta has a “Zero tolerance policy” for child abuse-related content.
The company is using “AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals, but we are in a constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5 billion users and try to evade our detection,” it added.
EU action against Meta
Earlier this year, the European Commission found that the social media giant was violating EU law by failing to prevent children below 13 from accessing its platforms.
Though Meta had disagreed with the preliminary findings, it could face fines of up to 6% of its total worldwide annual turnover if the findings are confirmed.
The US company is not facing an immediate risk of a fine in India, but has come under sharp regulatory scrutiny in its biggest market.
The country has the largest audience base for Instagram, with more than 480 million users, more than double the US as of 2025, as per data from Statista. It also has more than 400 million Facebook users, the most globally.
