Government Orders Meta to Remove Instagram Ads Promoting Child Abuse After BBC Investigation
The Government of India has issued a formal notice to Meta, the parent company of Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp, directing it to remove advertisements on its platforms that promote child sexual abuse material. The notice follows a BBC World Service investigation that found Instagram was running paid advertisements that offered access to illegal content, often redirecting users to the messaging app Telegram.
The BBC investigation involved setting up an alias account that followed sexually suggestive content. Within days, the platform began displaying advertisements that contained explicit references to child abuse, using terms such as 'rape video' and 'child video'. Children as young as seven years old appeared in the ads. Users were then directed to Telegram channels where they could purchase the material for as little as 99 rupees.
Instagram's advertisement approval process relies primarily on automated tools, as stated by Meta in its public guidelines. The system is supposed to review ads before they go live, checking them against policies that prohibit child sexual exploitation and fraud. However, the BBC investigation showed that these safeguards failed repeatedly. When the BBC reported one of the ads to Instagram, the platform responded 24 hours later claiming the ad did not violate its community guidelines. In another instance, an ad showing a girl in apparent distress was not removed after review.
Meta has previously announced plans to reduce reliance on human moderators and increase the use of artificial intelligence for content moderation. The BBC report did not allege that Instagram intentionally promoted such content, but it highlighted the financial incentive behind the platform's ad-based revenue model. In January 2025, Instagram reported that nearly 98% of its $200 billion revenue for the financial year ending 2025 came from advertising. Analysts estimate that ads account for over 90% of the platform's income.
This is not the first time Meta has faced scrutiny over child safety on its platforms. In April 2025, an investigation by the Pulitzer Centre found that at least a dozen Instagram accounts, with hundreds of thousands of followers, were openly sharing AI-generated sexualised images of children. Some of those accounts also redirected users to external platforms. The government notice demands immediate action to remove the offending advertisements and to prevent their recurrence.
