The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has summoned the Managing Director and Chief of Meta in India to appear before its child protection body on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, according to YourStory.
This summons marks a significant escalation in the NCPCR's investigation into allegations that paid advertisements related to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) were placed on the Instagram platform in India.
NCPCR initially notified Meta on July 3 after taking note of information from the BBC Eye investigation, which alleged that paid ads promoting CSAM were being shown to users in India.
According to the investigation, some advertisements used terms such as 'rape video' and 'child video,' directing users to Telegram channels where such content was allegedly offered for sale.
The report also indicated that the platform's recommendation algorithm was showing increasingly explicit content to a new test account. Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, stated that it was unaware of the placement of such ads and removed the relevant advertisements, accounts, and links after they were flagged.
The Commission sent a notification to Meta Platforms, Inc. on July 3, 2026, on the day the BBC report was published, acknowledging its findings and requesting details on existing protective measures. Meta responded approximately a week later.
After reviewing Meta's response, NCPCR decided on August 4 to commence a formal investigation to establish facts, moving the matter beyond simple correspondence.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology directed Meta in the first week of July to disable all advertising and content facilitating access to CSAM and to provide explanations within seven days.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) also took note of reports that paid advertisements displayed on the social media platform owned and operated by Meta were promoting or facilitating access to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) in India.
NHRC requested specific, point-by-point reports within two weeks from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), and the Delhi Police Commissioner, according to meeting protocols dated September 3.
The protocols specified: 'MeitY must specifically confirm compliance with Section 19 of the POCSO Act 2012 or, in the absence of reporting, state the reasons and name the responsible employee/body. This issue must not remain in a general or summarized response regarding intermediary compliance but must be answered specifically, supported by relevant records.'
In a statement on July 7, Meta reported that it had disabled about 1.6 lakh accounts in India over the past six months, adding that no review process detects every violation.
Sources informed the news agency ANI in early August that Meta admitted that its systems allowed illegal content to be promoted to target audiences, and that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the government on this matter. Meta has not publicly confirmed this conversation or apology.
Large platforms process millions of ad submissions daily, and machine learning classifiers reject almost all of them, rather than human reviewers. These systems are trained to recognize known patterns, such as nudity, prohibited keywords, or flagged web addresses.
Malicious users bypass these systems using coded language, harmless-looking images, and links to third-party applications where the actual material is outside the platform's view. Since the advertisement itself appears clean, the classifier approves it, and the advertiser pays for reach.
Security researchers argue that this is a design choice, not an inevitability, as human review of high-risk categories and closer monitoring of outgoing links is possible, but this increases costs and slows down ad delivery.
Wednesday's appearance will be closely watched by other platforms in India, as the outcome may influence how regulators interpret intermediary obligations under IT Rules and the POCSO Act.
If NCPCR finds that Meta's protective measures are insufficient, it may recommend action to the Centre and refer the case to law enforcement agencies. For Meta, which considers India its largest user base, this investigation comes amid its child safety practices already being scrutinized by three separate governmental bodies.
