The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notices to Meta and the police chiefs of eight states over alleged violations linked to pornographic and age-inappropriate content on Instagram and Facebook that may contain Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). The move adds a fresh legal front to the mounting pressure Meta is already facing from the Indian government over content moderation and compliance failures on its platforms.
What the NHRC has flagged?
Speaking to CNN-News18, NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo said the availability of paid content containing CSAM on Instagram could amount to a punishable offence under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Kanoongo said such allegations require a criminal investigation and that an FIR should be registered against Meta if the content is found to violate the law.
The commission has asked authorities in the eight states to investigate the alleged violations and take appropriate action, and has provided 50 URLs to the concerned authorities for investigation.
The Information Technology Secretary has also been made a party in the proceedings. Kanoongo warned that if the authorities fail to act despite being given the URLs, the NHRC will escalate the matter to the Centre.
"If the concerned authorities don't initiate the investigation despite 50 URLs being made available to them, then we are going to write to the Government of India and urge it to initiate appropriate action against incompetent police personnel and government authorities in the ministry," he reportedly said.
Part of a wider pattern of scrutiny
The NHRC notice lands just days after Meta's global leadership was summoned to New Delhi for back-to-back meetings with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan met Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on successive days this week, with government officials pressing the company on content moderation failures, its compliance with Indian law, and specifically the persistence of CSAM and deepfake content on its platforms despite existing safeguards. The meetings followed the temporary takedown of a video of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which Meta attributed to a technical error.
During these discussions, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised to the Indian government, expressing regret over CSAM, deepfake material and broader operational errors on Facebook, Instagram and the company's other services.
The apology came after a parliamentary committee had demanded an unqualified personal apology from Zuckerberg within three days, warning that non-compliance could put the company's safe-harbour protections under the IT Act at risk.
