Instagram ads in India found promoting child sexual abuse material: Report

Instagram has been running paid advertisements in India that promote child sexual abuse material, a BBC Eye investigation has found, raising serious questions about the platform’s ad moderation systems.According to the BBC, the ads were visible on Instagram and used explicit terms such as “rape video” and “child video”. These advertisements redirected users to channels on Telegram, where the illegal material was offered for as little as Rs 99.The BBC said the adverts had been approved by Instagram’s automated moderation systems, which are meant to screen paid content before publication. When one of the ads was reported, Instagram responded within 24 hours stating that the post did not violate its community guidelines.However, after the BBC sought a response from Instagram’s parent company Meta, Meta said it had disabled several of the adverts and suspended the accounts responsible. The company said it also removed additional ads, blocked URLs and took action against more accounts following the BBC’s findings.Telegram said it had removed more than 274,000 groups and channels linked to child sexual abuse material in 2026.The investigation began after the BBC noticed Instagram pushing sexually suggestive content to users who had not searched for such material. To examine how the platform’s recommendation and advertising systems worked, the BBC created an alias account in India and followed 10 accounts posting suggestive content.Within a week, the account began receiving ads featuring women offering video calls and showing explicit sexual content. Days later, advertisements depicting children in sexually suggestive situations with adults began appearing, again linking to Telegram channels.The findings have renewed concerns over the effectiveness of content moderation and ad approval systems on major social media platforms, particularly in fast-growing markets such as India.