India’s technology minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has asked his team to summon Meta Platforms Inc over sexual content involving children on Instagram, government officials familiar with the matter said on July 3.
Meta did not comment on the summons. It, however, responded to a BBC investigation, published earlier on July 3, that had revealed the presence of child sexual abuse material on Instagram ads.
Meta has a "zero tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing” such content, it said in a statement, adding that its teams were constantly working to improve defences.
Vaishnaw’s order came on the day a Meta team met with tech ministry officials to understand their concerns about WhatsApp’s new "usernames” feature, the officials said, declining to be named as the information is private.
WhatsApp this week began allowing users to reserve a username in a move it said boosts privacy. But in India, its biggest market with 600 million users, the company drew the state’s scrutiny. The tech ministry ordered Meta to hold back on the feature’s rollout for now and asked the company to explain the move over fears it could fuel online fraud, scams and impersonation.
The twin push is part of India’s latest moves against Meta that’s had previous run-ins with the government over issues including privacy and encryption.
India is the biggest market by users for Meta’s Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram apps. – Bloomberg
