Government Issues Stern Notice to Meta Over CSAM on Instagram Ads
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Article summary
India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has issued a stern notice to Meta, ordering Instagram to immediately disable all advertisements and content that promote or facilitate access to Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), with a demand for a detailed explanation within seven days. The action is grounded in the Information Technology Act, 2000 (Section 67B, which criminalises publishing sexually explicit content involving children) and the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, which impose due-diligence obligations on significant social media intermediaries. Instagram, with over 362 million users in India as of 2024, qualifies as a Significant Social Media Intermediary (SSMI) under the 2021 Rules, making it subject to enhanced compliance requirements including a Grievance Officer, Nodal Contact Person, and proactive content monitoring. The notice signals India's willingness to invoke its sovereign regulatory authority against global Big Tech platforms on child protection grounds, a domain where international consensus is unusually strong. For UPSC, this event sits at the intersection of IT law, intermediary liability, child rights, and digital governance — all high-frequency Mains themes.
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Sample questions — answers revealed after test
Q1. Under the Information Technology Act, 2000, which section specifically criminalises the publishing or transmitting of material depicting children in sexually explicit acts, and what is the maximum imprisonment prescribed under it?
Q2. A social media platform operating in India has 60 lakh registered Indian users. It has appointed a Chief Compliance Officer based in Singapore, has not designated a Resident Grievance Officer in India, and has failed to act on a government notice within the stipulated timeframe. Under India's current regulatory framework, which of the following consequences most directly and immediately follows from this scenario?
Q3. Consider the following statements regarding India's legal framework for combating Child Sexually Abusive Material (CSAM) online: 1. Section 15 of the POCSO Act, 2012 penalises the storage of child pornography and applies to digital platforms that facilitate such content. 2. Under IT Rules 2021, a Significant Social Media Intermediary (SSMI) is defined as a platform with over 1 crore registered users in India. 3. Rule 16 of the IT Rules 2021 empowers the government to direct an intermediary to remove content within 36 hours in emergency situations, and non-compliance can invite blocking orders under Section 69A of the IT Act. 4. Section 79 of the IT Act, 2000 grants unconditional immunity to all intermediaries for third-party content, regardless of their compliance with IT Rules 2021. Which of the statements given above are correct?