New Delhi (India) September 22: Google announced that it will begin alerting India authorities about content identified as child sexual abuse material, diverging from a global policy where the reports are initially forwarded to a US-based non-profit.
“Google is deeply committed to fighting CSAM online and preventing its platforms from being used to create, store or distribute such material. We invest significantly to detect, deter, remove, and report child sexual abuse material. 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,” a Google spokesperson said.
Meta Made Similar Move
The move comes a week after Meta announced such a policy. Earlier, two Indian government sources told Reuters they had last week urged tech firms such as Google and Microsoft to report content related to child abuse in India directly, citing the long processing delays in the system.
It was not quickly clear which ministry or department asked Google for this proposal.
Google Proposes Direct Reporting
Instead of referring them to the current reporting channel, Google suggested Indian law enforcement be provided with the appropriate reports. The current reporting channel refers to suspicious activity related to child sexual exploitation to the US non-profit National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).
Google says that, upon identifying CSAM on its services, it will delete the material and submit a Cyber Tipline report to NCMEC or other authorities. The report could also contain the alleged CSAM, contextual information, and information about the user or child victim if applicable.
Platforms Face Greater Scrutiny
Following a BBC Eye investigation that found ads on Instagram including the phrases "child video" or "rape video" – which linked to channels on Telegram that were selling CSAM – Meta's platforms Instagram and Facebook came under greater government scrutiny.
Following the disclosure of the information, the officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) called Meta officials. The government has maintained that such cases should be reported to Indian authorities.
India is a huge market for both companies. It is the biggest user market for Facebook (owned by Meta) and Google's YouTube. Meta's move to alter its reporting process came after weeks of friction with Indian officials, with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologising last month for child sexual abuse material present on the company's platform.