Will this feature of Instagram be stopped in India? Central Government gave strict warning to META, served notice

Meta to Remove CSEAM Ads: The central government has increased monitoring of paid advertisements on Instagram. The central government has issued a strict notice to Meta regarding content related to child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEAM) through paid advertisements on Instagram.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has directed Instagram to remove all advertisements and content that promote child sexual exploitation and abuse (CSEAM) or facilitate access to such content. According to sources, the government has sought a detailed reply from Meta on this matter within 7 days.

According to sources, the ministry is taking action against Meta’s content moderation system, ad review process and illegal and harmful content on its platform. The government may also seek detailed information on steps taken to make the action more effective. However, till the time of writing the news, no official statement had been issued by Meta on this matter.

Central government will ask for action plan

Earlier, the ministry had asked Meta how such advertisements were broadcast on Instagram and what steps were taken by the platform to stop them. It was also asked what steps the company is taking to stop advertisements promoting content related to sexual exploitation of children.

Meanwhile, Meta’s team has met officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology regarding the username feature of WhatsApp and asked for three days’ time to give a detailed reply. After this the ministry issued a notice to Meta.

Ban on rollout of WhatsApp username feature

This development has come to light at a time when the Indian government had recently stopped the rollout of the WhatsApp username feature. In response, WhatsApp clarified that its new username feature will be completely optional. The company says that before implementing this, many security measures have been added to protect against problems like identity theft, online fraud and unwanted contacts.

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In response to several questions asked on social media platform X, the company said that it will not be mandatory for any user to create a username. Also, the usernames, names of public figures, government organizations and meta verified accounts already existing on Instagram and Facebook have been kept safe, so that they can be used only by their original owners.

(with agency input)