By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON –Tech giant Google on Monday has agreed to report content flagged as child sex abuse material directly to the Indian government, departed from the existing global practice under which such reports are first routed to a US non-profit organization, media reported.
According to Google, the proposal is part of its ongoing discussion with the Indian government and follows a similar announcement by Meta last week.
Google will share information related to CSAM with Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The company said that it invests significantly to “detect, deter, remove, and report child sexual abuse material,” expressed its deep commitment to fighting CSAM online.
“As part of our ongoing discussions with the Government of India, we have respectfully proposed to operationalize the provision of relevant information to the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) in cases related to child sexual abuse material,” the company said.
Meta agreed to report child sexual abuse and child safety cases to the appropriate law enforcement agencies in India, taking such matters beyond the technology giant’s internal content-moderation systems as it faces scrutiny over harmful material on its platforms.
The commitment came after government engagement with social media companies over online child safety and allegations involving the circulation and promotion of child sexual abuse material through advertisements on Instagram.
Government sources said child safety is a fundamental requirement for social media platforms operating in India and remains “non-negotiable”.
The development also comes against the backdrop of findings by the Tech Transparency Project concerning paid advertisements on Meta platforms.
TTP said Meta ran more than 300 Facebook and Instagram advertisements this year containing suspected child sexual abuse material.
The watchdog said AI was used in many cases to manipulate images of children, including photographs of real minors.
