Photo: LPS.1 / Wikimedia Commons, CC0
The Delhi Police have registered a First Information Report against Meta India over the availability of child sexual exploitative and abuse material (CSEAM) on platforms run by the company, which include Facebook and Instagram. The case was filed on the directions of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), according to commission member Priyank Kanoongo, who announced it in a post on X.
Acting on our directions, Delhi Police has registered an FIR regarding the availability of Child Sexual Exploitative and Abuse Material (CSEAM) on platforms operated by Meta India.
Priyank Kanoongo, NHRC member
The commission had taken cognisance of allegations that such material was being made available and promoted through Meta-owned services, and asked the police to investigate and take action, according to reports. Meta India had not issued a public response to the FIR by Thursday morning.
Months of scrutiny over Instagram ads
The police case is the sharpest step yet in a dispute that has been building since mid-year. In July, an investigation by the BBC alleged that paid advertisements on Instagram in India were being used to promote child sexual abuse material, with some ads directing users to Telegram channels where such content was allegedly shared and sold.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology then sought an explanation from Meta and directed it to act against ads and content promoting the material. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had also issued a notice to the company on July 3 over ads linked to such content, and Meta filed its reply about a week later.
What Meta says it has done
The FIR comes roughly a month after Meta announced a set of AI-driven measures to detect and remove child exploitation content. In an October statement, the company said it had acted against 5.3 million pieces of such content on Facebook and Instagram in India between January and June 2026, and that more than 98 per cent of it was caught before any user reported it. Globally, it said it acted on 33.2 million pieces in the same period.
Meta said offenders were increasingly using innocent-looking ads to point people to illegal material hosted elsewhere. Its stated responses include:
- language-model based systems to spot “signposting” in ads that quietly lead users to harmful content
- checking where an ad leads, not just what it shows, and blocking violating external websites
- AI sweeps of past ads and an internal red-teaming AI agent to probe its own safeguards
- tighter checks on repeat offenders who return with new accounts
- reporting child safety cases in India directly to the National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal run by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C)
Why it matters and what comes next
The case puts a platform operator itself, rather than only the individuals who upload or share content, under police scrutiny, and it brings the question of a platform’s responsibility for harmful material, including paid ads that pass its own review, into a criminal investigation. With the FIR registered, the matter now moves to the investigation stage, where the police will look into how the material came to be available on Meta’s platforms and what the company did to stop it. Meta’s response to the case, and any notice the police serve on the company, will be the next developments to watch.
