Thu, 5 Nov, 2026, 11:01 pm
Reported by Maktoob
NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo announced the development in a post on X, stating that the police had acted on the Commission's directions to register a case concerning the circulation of child sexual abuse material on platforms operated by Meta.
The development comes amid growing scrutiny of social media companies over their responsibility to prevent the circulation of exploitative content and to protect children from online harm.
Meta said it had acted on 5.3 million pieces of child sexual exploitation content in India during the first half of 2026, with more than 98 per cent of it detected proactively, before users reported it.
Separately, the Supreme Court on Wednesday sought responses from the Union government and Meta on a public interest litigation seeking a comprehensive regulatory framework to protect children from algorithmic addiction and predatory online harms on social media platforms.
The petition alleged that platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp deliberately employ compulsive-use mechanisms, commonly referred to as "dark patterns", to keep users engaged. These include infinite scrolling, autoplay videos, push notifications and variable reward systems, which the petitioner said were designed to trigger dopamine responses and encourage prolonged use.
