New Delhi: Meta on Sunday said it has a zero-tolerance policy against the solicitation or sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including through advertisements, and uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology to proactively detect and remove violating content while continuously strengthening safeguards against offenders.
In a statement, a Meta spokesperson said the company remains in a constant battle with criminals who attempt to evade its detection systems by hiding among its 3.5 billion users.
“Meta has a zero tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing CSAM, including in ads. We use advanced AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals, but we are in a constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5 billion users and try to evade our detection,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added that Meta's expert teams are continually enhancing the company's defences by developing new technologies to identify online predators, blocking links to websites hosting abusive content and sharing intelligence with other technology companies to help them take action.
The statement came after reports that Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw directed the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to summon Meta officials over advertisements allegedly promoting child sexual abuse that appeared on Instagram.
According to sources, the ministry is expected to seek an explanation from the US-based technology company on how such advertisements appeared on Instagram and what safeguards are in place to prevent the circulation of such content.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is also likely to be asked to explain its advertisement review processes, content moderation systems and the measures it has adopted to detect, remove and prevent child sexual abuse-related content across its platforms.
Sources said the ministry is also expected to seek details on the company's enforcement mechanisms and the additional steps being taken to strengthen protections against illegal and harmful content.
The development comes days after the government asked WhatsApp to defer the rollout of its username feature in India pending consultations. In response, the messaging platform said usernames will be optional and that multiple safeguards have been built into the feature to prevent impersonation, scams and unwanted contact before its wider rollout later this year.
With IANS inputs