Meta replies to govt notice on Instagram ads; IT min reviewing response
This story was originally published at 22:32 IST on 13 July 2026
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NEW DELHI – The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has received a response from Meta Inc. over the issue of advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material on Instagram, the ministry said Monday. "The response was received on Saturday and is currently under examination. Appropriate action will be undertaken after due examination," S. Krishnan, secretary in the ministry, said.
Saturday was the deadline set by the government for Meta to submit its explanation. Earlier this month, the ministry had sent a stern notice over the issue to the company, seeking an explanation and directing it to disable all advertisements and content promoting or facilitating access to child sexual abuse material.
The issue came to light after a BBC Eye investigation revealed that Instagram had been running paid advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material in India and that such advertisements linked users to channels on Telegram, where they could buy the material.
The Centre had earlier issued a notice to Meta on the proposed username feature by WhatsApp and flagged concern that it could materially increase online fraud, phishing, digital arrest scams, and impersonation attacks. The IT ministry had also issued notices to WhatsApp's rivals Telegram and Signal on their existing username feature, widening the scrutiny of messaging platforms in India. End
Reported by Shakshi Jain
Edited by Rajeev Pai
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