Meta ran hundreds of paid s with artificial intelligence-generated child sexual abuse material (CSAM), including 84 in India, over the past 10 months, according to a report by the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a U.S.-based advocacy group. The report was released two months after the Indian government ordered Meta to remove all ads and content promoting CSAM on Instagram.

Indian Government Orders and Enforcement

This directive followed a BBC Eye investigation in July that revealed Instagram was running paid s promoting CSAM in India; In response, the Indian government ordered Meta to remove such content and held meetings with senior Meta officials. Despite this, the TTP found that 78 of the 84 ads in India were posted after the government’s order.

Meta’s Response and Legal Obligations

When the BBC contacted Meta about the report, the company stated that it does not tolerate nudify apps or any kind of child exploitation, whether real or. Meta emphasized that it strengthens detection and enforcement mechanisms to combat evolving tactics by criminals, and the company reported apparent child exploitation to the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in compliance with legal obligations.

However, Bhuwan Ribhu, founder of Just Rights for Children, a network of over 250 Indian organizations working to prevent violence against children, criticized Meta for not reporting CSAM to Indian law enforcement as required by law. Ribhu noted, “Social media companies are clearly flouting Indian laws by not reporting child sexual abuse content to Indian law enforcement agencies as mandated by our child protection laws.” Just Rights for Children has filed a petition in India’s Supreme Court seeking mandatory reporting from social media platforms.

Ad Content and Reporting Challenges

TTP found that almost all of the 332 ads it identified on Facebook and Instagram began with a photo of a child, which was then manipulated using AI to depict the child engaging in graphic sexual acts. According to the report, one ad in India featured a preteen girl animated to perform a sexual act, with a voiceover stating, “There are no restrictions. All the characters are real people and there are many options; this is the AI men actually use.” The BBC has not independently verified this ad.

TTP said it reported 55 of the 84 Indian ads to Meta — Of these, 43 were flagged as not violating Meta’s policies, while 11 were already removed. TTP has not yet received a response for one ad. Meta stated that many of the flagged ads had already been removed, with most having fewer than 200 impressions and a total ad spend under $5,000.

Meta’s internal reporting system allows users to report ads they believe violate its policies, but TTP found that the process is limited to live ads; the report also revealed that the majority of the 332 ads directed users to AI image or video generation apps, mostly from Chinese developers. Meta prohibits the promotion of nudify apps, which use AI to create fake non-consensual nude or sexually explicit images.

Shikha Goel, director of the Cyber Security Bureau in Telangana, highlighted the challenge of users moving between platforms to avoid detection, while she added that the government was expected to address this issue in its ongoing discussions with social media intermediaries. The BBC’s previous investigation found that some ads directed users to Telegram, where they could purchase CSAM for as little as 99 rupees; Telegram said it uses automated and human moderation to tackle CSAM and has “virtually eliminated the public spread of CSAM” on its platform.

TTP also noted that some of the ads were placed by Meta’s ad agency partners in China, known as “resellers,” which channel billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese advertising onto Facebook and Instagram. These partners did not respond to TTP’s inquiries — TTP reported that new ads, including 11 in India, continued to appear even after it shared its findings with Meta on September 1 and 2.