New Delhi: The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), human rights watchdog of India has stepped up scrutiny of Meta in India and has issued notice to the social media giant. NHRC has also issued notice to the police chiefs of eight states to initiate investigations over allegations that Instagram and Facebook hosted pornographic, age-inappropriate and potentially child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
The development comes amid mounting concerns over Meta’s content moderation practices in India as it briefly tookdown Prime Minister Modi’s video addressing the students over NEET paper leak protest from FaceBook. The latest NHRC notice also follows a series of investigations into the alleged circulation and monetisation of harmful content across Meta platforms involving minors.
The NHRC has also made the Information Technology Secretary a party to the proceedings and shared 50 URLs with the concerned authorities for investigation, NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo said. Speaking to the private media platform, Kanoongo said that allegations involved paid content containing CSAM on Instagram that could amount to a punishable offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
He said such allegations warrant a criminal investigation and that an FIR should be registered against Meta if investigators establish that the content hosted or circulated through its platforms violated Indian law. The NHRC has also directed the police authorities in the eight states to examine the URLs, investigate the alleged violations and initiate appropriate action wherever required.
Kanoongo also warned that failure by authorities to act despite the evidence being shared with them could lead the commission to approach the Centre. “If the concerned authorities don’t initiate the investigation despite 50 URLs being made available to them, then we are going to write to the Government of India and urge it to initiate appropriate action against incompetent police personnel and government authorities in the ministry”, he reiterated strong statement.
NHRC flags Meta promoting CSAM & sexually provocative content targeting minors
The commission’s intervention comes amid growing international and domestic scrutiny of the manner in which Meta detects, removes and prevents harmful content involving children.
An investigation by an international media platform in July said that Instagram in India was carrying advertisements that appeared to promote child sexual abuse material. Some of the advertisements reportedly used terms such as “rape video” and redirected users to Telegram channels where such material was being sold.
The scrutiny on Meta further intensified after another investigation revealed that Meta had approved and displayed paid advertisements featuring AI-generated CSAM and sexually suggestive images involving minors across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads. The investigation also highlighted advertisements for AI-powered “nudify” tools capable of generating sexually explicit images.
However, Meta has defended its efforts to combat such content, saying sexual exploitation of children is “horrific” and that it has strengthened its AI-powered systems to identify and block policy-violating advertisements before publication. The company has also said that some of the advertisements highlighted in investigations had limited distribution.
Meta faces mounting government scrutiny in India
The NHRC proceedings come at a time when Meta is already facing heightened regulatory attention in India.
The company recently came under fire after a video featuring Prime Minister Narendra Modi was temporarily removed from the FaceBook platform. Meta officials subsequently met senior officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), including IT Secretary S Krishnan.
The roughly 45-minute meeting reportedly covered the video takedown as well as broader concerns over Meta’s compliance with Indian regulations, its handling of CSAM, AI-generated or synthetic content and safeguards for content involving verified public figures.
Meta later described the removal of the Prime Minister’s video as an “erroneous takedown”, maintaining that it was an unintended technical error. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg also apologised following the recent controversies surrounding CSAM, deepfake content and other operational failures across the company’s platforms.
