The internet has long confronted governments with a difficult question: where does platform neutrality end and corporate responsibility begin? The answer becomes much clearer when the content in question is not merely hosted but advertised. The discovery that paid advertisements on Instagram allegedly promoted access to child sexual abuse material is not simply a moderation failure. It is a failure of an advertising system that exists to review, approve and monetise content before it reaches users. That distinction is fundamental. A platform may plausibly argue that billions of pieces of user-generated content cannot all be screened in advance.

It cannot make the same claim about advertisements that pass through its own approval pipeline and generate revenue. The Centre’s decision to summon Meta, which owns the platform, and direct the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to seek an explanation is therefore more than a routine regulatory response. It signals a recognition that intermediary protection cannot become a shield where a platform’s own commercial processes are implicated. Reports that the government has ordered the immediate........

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