Meta has agreed to report cases related to child sexual abuse and other child safety-related concerns to appropriate law enforcement agencies in India, government sources said on Tuesday, as the Centre steps up pressure on social media platforms to take stronger measures to protect safety of children online.
According to the sources, the government has been engaging with social media platforms to curb harmful and illegal information and ensure a safer online environment for children.
“Online safety of children is a fundamental principle for any social media platform to operate in India, and it is non-negotiable,” they said.
According to officials, Meta’s decision to report child safety-related matters to law enforcement agencies is an important step, but said significantly more needed to be done to address the risks faced by children online.
They also said it remains engaged with other social media platforms to encourage them to proactively identify and remove harmful content involving children.
The government has warned that platforms failing to take proactive measures to protect children online could face appropriate action.
The latest development follows a meeting between Meta representatives and the government in August, during which a range of issues were discussed, including compliance with Indian laws, safeguards for the removal of posts involving prominent personalities and concerns over Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).
During the meeting, the government also asked Meta executives to demonstrate how their platforms were complying with Indian laws on issues including freedom of expression , privacy, content moderation and trust around digital spaces.
“You cannot run your platform in India and follow the US Constitution,” sources had said at the time.
In July, a Meta team met officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeiTy) after the company was issued a notice over the proposed rollout of the ‘usernames’ feature on WhatsApp in India. Government officials conveyed their concerns over the feature to the Meta representatives.
