The Indian government has directed Meta to immediately disable advertisements and content on Instagram that promote or facilitate child sexual abuse material, a senior official said.

It comes after an investigation found that Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India.

In a notice to the tech company, the government also sought an explanation within a week on how paid advertisements containing such material were allowed on the platform, the official said.

Meta has said it has a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse material and is continuing to strengthen its detection and defences.

“The government has issued a stern notice to Meta over child sexual exploitative and abuse material appearing in paid advertisements on Instagram,” a senior official in India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology told the BBC.

The official further said the federal ministry had “ordered Instagram to disable all ads and content promoting or facilitating access” to such material.

“The government has sought a detailed explanation from Meta within seven days,” the official added.

On being asked about the government’s notice, a Meta spokesperson said the company has “a zero-tolerance policy for soliciting or sharing” child sexual abuse material, including in ads.

“We use advanced AI technology to proactively detect violating content and individuals, but we are in a constant battle with criminals who hide among our 3.5 billion users and try to evade our detection,” the spokesperson said.

The government notice has been issues days after the BBC Eye Investigation was published.