LONDON, July 4 — Instagram’s advertising system served paid ads promoting child sexual abuse material to a test account in India, the BBC reported today.
The BBC said its alias account began receiving the ads after it followed several sexually suggestive profiles, with some adverts allegedly linking users to Telegram channels selling illegal material.
A retired Indian Supreme Court justice, Madan Lokur, warned that Instagram was “making money by participating in a criminal activity”.
The investigation found around 30 unique adverts promoting child sexual abuse alongside about 20 adult pornography ads, despite such material being illegal in India and banned under Meta’s advertising rules.
When the BBC reported one advert, Instagram responded within 24 hours saying “our review team found that the advertiser's ad does not go against our community standards”.
After the BBC sought comment, Meta said it had removed multiple ads, disabled accounts and blocked links tied to the findings, adding: “No system is perfect, and our review process may not detect all policy violations”.
Hours after the report was published, India’s government said it had summoned representatives of Meta over the ads.
Some of the Instagram ads allegedly directed users to Telegram channels where illegal material was offered for sale, the BBC reported.
While Telegram said it had removed more than 274,000 groups linked to child abuse in 2026, the BBC reported that at least one flagged channel continued operating.
Telegram said it has “virtually eliminated the public spread of CSAM from its platform”.
The findings have intensified scrutiny of Meta’s ad review systems, its growing reliance on AI moderation and the broader question of whether social media companies are doing enough to prevent criminal exploitation on their platforms.
