Centre Summons Meta Officials Over Child Abuse Ads On Instagram: Sources

Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, has directed the ministry to summon American social media giant Meta's officials in connection with Instagram-hosted advertisements promoting child sexual abuse, sources said.The ministry will seek an explanation from the company -- which owns WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook -- regarding the advertisements, the sources added.The government will ask Meta's officials how it allowed its platform to host such advertisements and what it is doing to stem such content.Earlier today, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported that Instagram has been running advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material in India.In the investigative report, the BBC said it had seen ads that use highly objectionable titles, including "rape video" and "child video". It found that the ads were linked to Telegram channels where they could buy such material for just Rs 99.Also read: Centre Asks Meta Not To Roll Out WhatsApp IDs Until Consultation: SourcesPer the report, after the BBC reported such ads to Instagram, the social media platform responded 24 hours later, saying the posts didn't violate its "community guidelines".Meta, Instagram's parent firm, later told the British media company that it had disabled several of those advertisements and suspended the accounts that posted them.He said it had also blocked URLs that violated its content policies.Also read: After WhatsApp, Centre Sends Notices To Telegram, Signal Over Usernames: SourcesEarlier this week, the central government asked Meta to hold the rollout of the "username" feature.The government has asked it to furnish a detailed explanation of the "usernames" feature within three days."It is felt that the feature may materially increase the incidence of online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams and impersonation attacks, by enabling bad actors to solicit and message victims," the government's notice had said."Furthermore, this feature may facilitate impersonation and identity spoofing, including impersonation of individuals, public authorities, financial institutions, and government agencies, by permitting the adoption of usenames closely resembling those of genuine persons or institutions," the notice added.Telegram and Signal received similar notices.