Google, Telegram asked how they handle CSAM

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Thursday met with Google and Telegram representatives to understand how they detect and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on their platforms, an NCPCR official told HT. The meeting comes amid the commission’s ongoing inquiry into Meta, after a BBC Eye investigation found Instagram advertisements that directed users to Telegram channels allegedly selling CSAM.India NewsGoogle was asked how it handles CSAM on YouTube and its other platforms, and the commission also asked Telegram about its content moderation policy, the official said. The commission wants a detailed response from both platforms and will send both a questionnaire on Friday and seek written responses, giving them 10-12 days to reply. After studying the answers, NCPCR will call another meeting.The commission also questioned why the companies had not, until recently, been reporting such cases to Indian agencies. “They were reminded that the law of the land must be followed,” the official said. This comes after Meta and Google in September announced that they will begin reporting to the Cyber Crime portal maintained by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs. Telegram told the commission that it is already reporting to I4C.This also comes as the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has submitted a draft of an SOP on CSAM to the Supreme Court, after it asked the ministry to implement its 2024 judgment in the Just Rights for Children Alliance v S Harish, which requires social media intermediaries to report such material to law enforcement. The SOP will explain how an intermediary must report CSAM, where to report it, and what the process will be.Until now, Google and Meta reported detected CSAM through the US-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), which forwards reports to law enforcement agencies around the world. The government’s position is that platforms must report such cases directly to Indian law enforcement agencies, and it has called children’s online safety “non-negotiable”.