In just one week, the Indian government has issued official queries to two of the three major platforms under Meta's umbrella: WhatsApp and Instagram.
On Saturday, the Indian government ordered Instagram to remove all content related to child abuse from its platform. India is Meta's largest global market by user base, with WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram each having their highest number of users in the country.
Last week, WhatsApp's launch of a username feature came under scrutiny from Indian regulators, who stated the feature could facilitate cybercrime.
Within a week, the Indian government issued successive regulatory warnings to two of Meta's major platforms, WhatsApp and Instagram, highlighting the escalating regulatory risks the U.S. social media giant faces in this crucial market.
According to a report by India's national broadcaster DD News, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology sent a stern query to Meta on Saturday, directly pointing to the presence of child sexual exploitation and abuse material (CSEAM) in paid advertisements on Instagram.
The report stated that the Indian government demanded Instagram immediately take down and deactivate all advertisements and related content promoting child abuse, and required Meta to submit a complete written explanation within seven days.
This regulatory warning followed an investigative report published by the BBC on Friday, which exposed Instagram's promotion of paid advertisements containing child sexual abuse content in India.
A Meta spokesperson stated via email that the company enforces a zero-tolerance policy towards content related to child abuse. The company is using artificial intelligence technology to proactively screen for violative content and accounts, but with a global user base of 3.5 billion, bad actors are constantly attempting to evade system detection, leading to an ongoing battle.
Earlier this year, the European Commission determined that this social media giant violated EU regulations by failing to prevent children under the age of 13 from accessing its platforms. Although Meta disagrees with the preliminary findings, if the final ruling is upheld, the company could face a substantial fine of up to 6% of its global annual revenue.
While Meta is not facing immediate fines in India at this moment, the company is undergoing intense regulatory scrutiny in its largest market. According to 2025 data from the statistics platform Statista, Instagram has over 480 million users in India, more than double its user base in the United States; Facebook also has over 400 million users in India, ranking first globally.
Neil Shah, Vice President of Research at the market analysis firm Counterpoint, stated that this incident serves as a wake-up call for Meta, emphasizing that the platform must strengthen its compliance controls. The Indian government is actively working to tighten regulatory constraints on major digital platforms.
Last week, Meta's messaging app WhatsApp, which has over 500 million users in India, received a regulatory warning for introducing a username feature. The Indian government believes this feature increases the risk of cybercrime and ordered the platform to halt its rollout plans.
Meta defended the username feature, stating it is a core privacy tool that allows users to connect with others without sharing their phone numbers.
Rima Bhattacharya, Head of Asia Research at the risk analysis firm Verisk Maplecroft, commented that the Indian market is not necessarily hostile to companies, but rather operates under stricter regulatory standards. She added that as a critical global digital market, companies should be prepared for regulators to continuously increase oversight on various issues, including online safety and data governance.