All ads related to child abuse must be removed from Instagram. This time, the Center has given strict instructions to Meta. The Center has issued a notice to Meta for allegedly containing content related to sexual exploitation and abuse of children in its advertisements circulated on Instagram. According to sources, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has directed Instagram to immediately stop any ads that are currently running on or related to child abuse.
Instagram was accused of promoting child sexual abuse. The officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had already written to the relevant organizations after receiving the instructions from the Union Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnab. Meta has been asked to respond within seven days regarding the steps taken to remove such ads from Instagram.
According to an investigative report by BBC i, Instagram is promoting paid ads with words like ‘rape videos’ and ‘child videos’. Allegedly, such illegal videos were sold through users’ Telegram channels. The Center took action after the BBC I report came to light. Notably, a BBC investigation revealed that ‘rape videos’ and ‘child videos’ were advertised on Instagram. After that, those child sexual abuse videos were sold to interested customers for only 99 rupees through Telegram channel. According to the BBC report, the offending ads are published only after going through the vetting process of Instagram authorities. That is, Instagram and Meta were fully aware of the offending videos.
Incidentally, the new ‘username’ feature of WhatsApp is in the face of controversy. The two messaging apps targeted are Telegram and Signal. The feature has been questioned in the letter sent to both the companies. How fraud has been tackled since the feature was introduced. According to sources, this feature allows users to adopt ‘username’ that looks like the name of a legitimate organization, organization or person. The Center fears that online fraud may increase using the new system. Customers’ chat privacy may also be compromised. The number of crimes may increase. After that Modi government sent notice to Meta. This time they sent the same notice to two other app companies. But even if Telegram already has ‘username’, this facility is optional for Signal as well. It is known that the Center has sent a notice to Telegram asking why this feature will be allowed.
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