Did Instagram Run Advertisements Promoting Child S*xual Abuse Material in India? Meta Responds After BBC Report

A BBC Eye investigation has revealed that Instagram has been running paid advertisements promoting child s*xual abuse material (CSAM) to users in India. The promotional campaigns utilised explicit terminology, including "rape video" and "child video," providing direct links to external channels on the messaging application Telegram, where the illicit material was offered for sale for as little as 99 rupees (about USD 1). The findings expose critical vulnerabilities in Meta’s advertisement screening protocols.

Unlike standard organic posts, which are generally evaluated post-publication, Meta policies dictate that every advertisement must be systematically reviewed and approved by automated moderation technology before it is permitted to go live on the platform. After WhatsApp, Govt Sends Notices to Telegram, Signal Over Username Features.

Automated Moderation Failures

To evaluate the platform’s algorithmic behaviour, investigators established an India-based alias account that initially followed ten accounts posting mainstream, suggestive content. Within less than a week, Instagram’s feed began presenting paid advertisements featuring adult pornography, which quickly escalated to promotions depicting children with adults in s*xually suggestive situations. In total, the test account was served roughly 30 unique advertisements promoting child exploitation. The investigation also highlighted lapses in human oversight.

When the BBC initially flagged an advertisement showing a distressed, young girl with text indicating she had been assaulted, Instagram's automated system responded 24 hours later stating the post did not violate its "community guidelines". Following a direct inquiry from the BBC, parent company Meta disabled the identified advertisements, suspended the associated accounts, and blocked the external URLs. Meta later stated to the BBC that "no system is perfect, and our review process may not detect all policy violations," adding that it continues to utilise proactive live detection software.

Commercial Models and Algorithmic Vulnerabilities

Advertising represents the primary financial driver for Meta, accounting for nearly 98 per cent of its USD 200 billion revenue for the financial year ending 2025. Analysts estimate advertisements generate more than 90 per cent of Instagram's total revenue. The automated review pipeline checks text, imagery, video, targeting parameters, and landing links, routing ambiguous cases to human reviewers. However, in March, Meta announced it was reducing its reliance on third-party human moderators to favour advanced artificial intelligence systems, noting that "experts will design, train, oversee, and evaluate our AI systems."

Former Facebook Vice President Brian Boland, who managed the company’s ad business until 2020, stated he was "horrified and unsurprised" by the findings, alleging the company "didn't care about users anywhere". Boland noted that the engagement-driven algorithms are optimised to maximise watch times by serving users "something more extreme, more tantalising." "It's not like an algorithm that says 'let's make people paedophiles', but because they're not responsibly guiding and controlling it - and it's just pursuing the goals of revenue and clicks - it will create these outcomes if people aren't being truly, aggressively protective over these systems," Boland said. He further noted that over time, "the trade-off of revenue and user experience became a more core part of the conversation."

Cross-Platform Exploitation and Regulatory Pressures

The operational framework of the illicit trade relies heavily on cross-platform navigation. Siddharth Pillai, co-founder of the Mumbai-based NGO Rati Foundation, explained that "criminals use the seamless navigation from Instagram to Telegram to evade our moderation efforts, and keep reuploading the content we help take down." Reviewing the findings, retired Supreme Court of India Justice Madan Lokur expressed severe concern that the social media platform was effectively "making money by participating in a criminal activity." While current Indian legislation provides safe-harbour protections exempting intermediaries from liability for third-party user uploads, Justice Lokur emphasised that "the platform cannot, cannot shirk its responsibility," suggesting the issue warrants suo moto cognisance by the Supreme Court to mandate government intervention.

The scale of online child exploitation remains a significant challenge for Indian law enforcement. US-based tech firms are legally mandated to forward suspected CSAM activity to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) Cyber Tipline. In 2025, India received 1.9 million of these secondary law enforcement referrals, ranking second globally behind the United States. Shikha Goel, director of the Cyber Security Bureau in Telangana, confirmed that Meta platforms generate the highest volume of tipline reports, though she clarified that "that does not mean they are the largest," as a highly active internal detection algorithm will naturally generate more reporting alerts. Telegram Back in India: Service Restored After 7-Day Restriction; Users Elated.

Responses from Meta and Telegram

In an official statement, Meta strongly rejected the assertion that its systems deliberately targeted exploitative material toward predatory demographics. "Child exploitation is a horrific crime and Meta works aggressively to fight it on our apps," the company stated, labelling counter-claims "categorically inaccurate". Meta indicated it denied prioritising monetisation over user safety, noting that it had automatically terminated over four million suspicious accounts in 2025. "While determined criminals try to evade detection, our expert teams are constantly working to improve our defenses, developing new technology to root out predators, blocking links to violating websites, and sharing intelligence with other companies so they can take action too," Meta added.

Concurrently, Telegram reported that it had shut down more than 274,000 groups and channels associated with CSAM over the course of 2026. The Dubai-based platform, which faces ongoing criticism for operating outside international safety groups like the NCMEC or the Internet Watch Foundation, stated it employs a hybrid system of automated and human moderation. The company asserted that these internal measures have "virtually eliminated the public spread of CSAM from its platform." However, during the investigation, the BBC noted that while Telegram disabled one reported channel, an alternate channel remained active and continued to offer illicit material for commercial sale.

Women and Child Helpline Numbers:

Childline India – 1098; Missing Child and Women – 1094; Women’s Helpline – 181; National Commission for Women Helpline – 112; National Commission for Women Helpline Against Violence – 7827170170; Police Women and Senior Citizen Helpline – 1091/1291.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 03, 2026 12:52 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).