作者： admin

Growing regulatory and public pressure over the spread of monetized child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on Meta’s platforms has forced the tech giant to announce a policy shift: it will now begin reporting child safety incidents directly to Indian law enforcement, after months of scrutiny from New Delhi and child rights advocates.

The controversy first erupted in July, when a BBC Eye investigation uncovered paid Instagram advertisements actively promoting CSAM to users across India. The findings immediately triggered a formal order from the Indian government, demanding Meta purge all CSAM-linked content and advertising from its platforms. The issue reemerged in the public eye this month, when the U.S.-based nonprofit Tech Transparency Project (TTP) published a new report documenting hundreds of AI-generated CSAM advertisements still active on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram platforms. Of the 332 problematic ads TTP identified, 84 were targeted at Indian audiences—and 78 of those had been placed after the government’s original removal order in July.

In response to mounting pressure, a Meta spokesperson confirmed the company’s new policy commitment, framing child protection as a core organizational priority. “Protecting children on our platforms is a priority for us, and we’re committed to working with the government to ensure that the perpetrators of these crimes are held responsible,” the spokesperson said. “To collectively strengthen our efforts to combat this harm, Meta will now report child safety matters directly to the Cybercrime portal managed by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre.”

The Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), which operates under India’s Union Home Ministry, manages the country’s central hub for tracking and investigating digital cybercrime. Until this policy shift, Meta only fulfilled its child safety reporting obligations by sending all CSAM and exploitation alerts to the U.S.-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which then forwarded relevant cases to local law enforcement in other countries. Direct reporting to India’s national portal is expected to cut down processing time and give local investigators faster access to critical information about bad actors operating on the platforms.

The policy change comes after multiple layers of official and civil society action against Meta over the scandal. India’s National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) launched a formal inquiry following the BBC investigation, summoning Meta India’s managing director and country head to answer questions about the company’s content moderation failures. India’s National Human Rights Commission also issued formal notices to two Union ministries, launching an inquiry into whether Meta’s algorithmic content systems contributed to the selection, amplification, and monetization of CSAM content. A civil society network, Just Rights for Children—made up of more than 250 child rights organizations—even filed a petition before India’s Supreme Court, asking the court to order all social media firms to report CSAM promoters directly to Indian law enforcement. The group’s founder, Bhuwan Ribhu, had long argued that routing all reports exclusively through the U.S.-based NCMEC system created unacceptable delays that let bad actors operate with impunity.

Meta has yet to release key details about the new policy rollout: the company has not announced an official start date for direct reporting, clarified exactly which types of child safety cases will fall under the new arrangement, or explained how the process will work in practice alongside existing reporting through NCMEC. In an earlier statement to the BBC following TTP’s new findings, Meta defended its existing efforts, noting that it does not tolerate CSAM or exploitative content—whether generated via AI or featuring real children—“Criminals continually change their tactics to evade detection and that it was strengthening its systems,” the company said. Meta also added that most of the advertisements identified by TTP had already been taken down, most received fewer than 200 impressions, and the total ad spend behind the problematic content was less than $5,000.

The ongoing scrutiny of Meta in India reflects a broader global push to force major social media platforms to take more aggressive action against CSAM, particularly the fast-growing category of AI-generated exploitative imagery that has evaded many older content detection systems.

A violent road incident in the northern Indian city of Gurugram, just outside the national capital New Delhi, has triggered widespread public anger across the country after graphic dashcam footage of the crash circulated widely on social media. The event has also reignited long-simmering conversations about routine harassment and gender-based hostility that female motorcyclists report facing on Indian public roads.

The confrontation unfolded on Sunday, when 28-year-old Shivani Chauhan was out riding with a group of fellow motorcycle enthusiasts. Footage captured by a camera mounted to Chauhan’s own bike clearly shows a white sedan drifting close to her two-wheeler before making contact. The impact throws Chauhan off her motorcycle onto the asphalt, leaving her bike skidding across the road, while the sedan does not stop and continues driving away from the scene.

Chauhan, who only suffered minor injuries thanks to her full protective riding gear, later shared the clip to her Instagram account. The video quickly went viral, racking up millions of views and drawing thousands of angry comments from social media users, which pressured local law enforcement to launch a formal investigation into the incident.

By Tuesday, Gurugram police confirmed they had taken the identified driver, 34-year-old Kalyan Bainsla, a gym owner from the nearby Haryana district of Palwal, into custody. Police records show Bainsla was operating a borrowed vehicle at the time of the crash. Investigators initially filed charges against Bainsla for reckless driving and endangering public safety, but later upgraded the charges to include attempted murder in response to public outcry and evidence from the viral footage.

Bainsla has publicly denied any intentional wrongdoing, laying out an alternate account of the incident during an interview with Indian news outlet Aaj Tak. He claims that members of Chauhan’s biking group repeatedly overtook his car and then slowed down abruptly in front of him, forcing him into a dangerous maneuver. When approaching a U-turn, he says he lost control of the vehicle while trying to avoid colliding with Chauhan’s bike. He also claims he did not initially know the rider was a woman, and that he had already asked the group to slow down earlier in the encounter. Bainsla says he fled the scene because the group of motorcyclists were shouting threats and abuse at him, and he feared he and his traveling relatives would be violently attacked if he stopped.

“Had I stopped right then, those people would have beaten us up,” Bainsla told the news channel.

Chauhan has forcefully refuted every part of Bainsla’s narrative. In a follow-up Instagram video posted shortly after Bainsla’s interview, she claimed the white car began following her group almost immediately after they started their ride. When she told the driver to maintain a safe distance, she says the car’s occupants became hostile and demanded she pull over. Chauhan says she kept riding because she feared the car would block her path, and that a fellow rider behind her tried to position their bike between hers and the car to shield her. She also alleged that the men inside the car showed clear signs of intoxication. Police have not yet confirmed whether they conducted alcohol tests on Bainsla following his detention.

Bainsla’s legal representative, Naveen Bainsla, has denied the intoxication allegation, telling Indian news agency ANI that his client had not been drinking and was traveling with family members. The lawyer also rejected framing the incident as a deliberate hit-and-run, arguing it should be classified as a case of negligent driving rather than intentional harm.

Chauhan doubled down on her challenge to Bainsla’s account in a second follow-up video posted Monday night. She pointed to the original dashcam footage as clear proof that the car moved toward her motorcycle, rather than the other way around. She also rejected Bainsla’s claim that he did not know she was a woman, and publicly questioned why he failed to stop and check on her condition after the crash.

“I could have been gravely hurt or broken my bones. I could’ve died on the spot,” Chauhan said in the video.

The viral incident has opened up a national conversation about the routine threats and harassment female motorcyclists face across India. Dozens of women riders have since shared their own experiences online, recounting being followed by other motorists, filmed without consent, or targeted with aggressive driving simply because they are women riding high-powered motorcycles. Many reported facing constant microaggressions and stereotypes about women’s ability to operate large vehicles.

Divya Sandhu, a professional riding coach who was involved in a similar harmful collision 10 years ago, told Indian broadcaster NDTV that widespread negative attitudes toward women riders have not improved in the decade since her own incident. “It’s very common for people to joke about women’s driving skills,” she said.

Another female motorcyclist, Pallavi Singh, added that many women riders intentionally hide their hair and wear full-coverage protective gear partially to avoid being identified as women and targeted for harassment while on the road.