Instagram running ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India, BBC finds
In total, approximately 30 unique ads promoting child sexual exploitation were uncovered, although some were shared across multiple accounts.
The pseudonymous account was also shown approximately 20 ads containing adult pornography.
Distribution of both child sexual abuse material and adult pornography is criminalized in India; According to Meta’s policy, ads must not contain adult nudity, genitalia, or content that sexually exploits or endangers children. The BBC reported all the ads and Telegram channels to Indian authorities.
One ad showed a boy and girl, both appearing to be about 12 years old, engaging in sexual intercourse.
Another showed a man with his arm around a girl, and the message said he was 52 and the girl was 12. “Click to watch more,” it said, linking to a Telegram channel.
The BBC published an advert on Instagram showing a very young girl in tears and a statement saying she had been sexually assaulted.
But 24 hours later, Instagram responded, saying it did not remove the ad because “our review team found that the advertiser’s ad did not violate our community standards.”
Meta later told the BBC that “no system is perfect and our review process may not detect all policy breaches”.
“We continue to implement proactive detection technology after ads go live, and anyone can report an ad they think violates our rules,” Meta said.
He added that if he becomes aware of clear child abuse, he will report it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in accordance with the law. NCMEC is the central global reporting system for online child sexual exploitation.
We reported two channels selling child sexual abuse videos to Telegram.
One of them was later removed and replaced with the message “This group cannot be viewed because it violates Telegram’s Terms of Service,” but the other continued to post new videos for sale.
Critics have previously accused the platform of not doing enough to prevent criminal content from being shared.
The Dubai-based company is not a member of NCMEC or the Internet Watch Foundation, which also works with most online platforms to find, report and remove such materials.
Telegram told the BBC that the company uses both automated and human moderation to eliminate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from the app, resulting in “virtually eliminating the public dissemination of CSAM on its platform.”
