Meta Issues Statement As CSAM Ads Row Escalates | Read Full Statement

New Delhi: Meta, currently under fire following reports of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Instagram, has issued a response outlining its efforts to combat what it terms a "horrific crime." Despite the company’s "zero-tolerance" stance on child exploitation and its pledges to purge offending accounts and advertisements, skepticism persists regarding the efficacy of its security measures.

A recent investigation by Republic World suggests that Meta's enforcement remains inconsistent, as prohibited advertisements were still found to be active on the platform. This response follows a formal notice from the Indian government regarding the presence of such content. 

In its statement, the company noted: "Child exploitation is a horrific crime and every day, we work aggressively to fight this kind of abuse both on and off our platforms."

‘We are aware…’

Meta said, "We're aware of recent news reports about Instagram ads in India that violated our policies against child exploitation. And we want to be clear: we take these concerns seriously, we never want this content on our platforms, and we're committed to improving our efforts to combat it. Before these cases were brought to our attention, our enforcement systems had already identified and disabled several of the violating ads and the accounts behind them. Our subsequent investigation led to additional action, including removing further ads, disabling accounts, and blocking URLs linked to policy-violating content." 

However, this explanation is unlikely to appease critics, especially since advertisements that breach Meta’s own guidelines continue to appear on the platform despite the company's pledges.

Violating Ads Still Live

The social media giant further added, “Globally, last year alone, thanks to improvements to our technology, we automatically removed more than 4 million suspicious accounts from Facebook and Instagram, on top of the 36 million pieces of content we removed for child exploitation.”

Despite Meta's claim that it has acted aggressively against offending advertisements, Republic World has independently verified that some advertisements promoting child sexual abuse material remain accessible on Instagram even after the government's intervention. 

The findings raise fresh questions about whether Meta's automated moderation systems and manual review processes are sufficient to detect and remove such content before it reaches users. The continued presence of these advertisements also comes despite the Centre's direction to Meta to act swiftly against policy-violating content.

Advertiser checks, AI

The Mark Zuckerberg-helmed company said it has detailed their ad review mechanism, artificial intelligence tools, and enforcement record to tackle child sexual abuse materials across platforms. 

"In the last six months alone, this led to the removal of 160,000 accounts in India, " it said.

Despite the social media giant’s assertion that it maintains a "zero-tolerance" policy on child exploitation and has taken down various violating ads and accounts, concerns persist regarding its enforcement. 

What MeitY said

Notably, this follows a directive from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), which ordered Meta to explain the approval process behind these advertisements and upgrade its moderation protocols. Furthermore, the government has demanded guarantees that such content will be prevented from reappearing on Instagram.

The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said, "MeitY has ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting and facilitating access to CSEAM."

The government has also demanded a detailed explanation within seven days, the sources added.

Read the full statement here

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