India's government has ordered Meta to remove advertisements containing child sexual abuse material from Instagram and explain what went wrong within seven days The Hindu.

A BBC investigation published days earlier found that Instagram was showing ads promoting child sexual abuse material to users BBC. India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) responded by issuing the notice. The government is treating this as a violation of Indian law governing how tech platforms are responsible for content on their services.

The seven-day deadline matters legally. Under Indian rules, if platforms don't quickly remove illegal content when ordered, they lose protections that normally shield them from being sued over what users post. If Meta doesn't provide a satisfactory explanation, the government can take further action through law enforcement or additional regulatory steps.

Why is this case different from other content problems on social media? When illegal material shows up in regular posts or videos, it is hard to find and remove. But when it appears in paid advertisements, it means the material passed through Meta's ad-checking system — the process that is supposed to review ads before they go live. Paid ads also leave a clear trail: payment records, advertiser account information, and billing history. This makes them easier to trace than regular posts.

Meta's own advertising rules already ban ads containing child sexual abuse, and the company says it reports such material to authorities when it finds it Meta. The BBC and The Hindu did not report that Meta had publicly addressed the specific ads they found, or that Meta had announced any penalties.

There is a larger question here about how companies check millions of ads every day. Meta uses computer programs to scan ads for abuse material, then has people check ads that the computer flags as possible problems. Special tools can identify known abuse images, but ads using hidden language, fake pictures, or new images not yet on record can sometimes get through. This case suggests Meta either missed these ads in its automated checks or its human reviewers did not catch them.

India is Meta's largest user base in the world. The Indian government has shown it will use compliance rules to hold tech companies accountable on various issues. But a case involving child sexual abuse material is different from most other disputes — almost everyone agrees this material should be removed, which means the government has strong grounds to enforce this without facing the usual criticism that comes with speech-related takedown orders.

What happens depends on Meta's response. If Meta identifies the ads, the advertisers, explains the problem, and describes how it will fix it, the case may be closed. If the company's answer seems incomplete or dismissive, the government could send the case to law enforcement, issue more regulatory notices, or release the details publicly. For Meta, the damage beyond any fine could be significant.