A BBC Eye investigation has uncovered paid advertisements on Instagram promoting child sexual abuse material in India. The adverts, which have been approved by the platform's moderation technology, use explicit language and link users to content on Telegram for as little as 99 rupees (approximately $1). When the BBC reported one such ad to Instagram, the social media giant replied 24 hours later stating that the post did not violate its community guidelines. Meta, Instagram's parent company, later claimed it had disabled several of these ads and suspended the accounts responsible. The company also stated that it had removed additional ads, disabled more accounts, and blocked URLs for other content in response to the BBC's findings. Telegram reported removing over 274,000 groups and channels related to child sexual abuse material in 2021. The BBC created an alias account on Instagram after noticing the platform was pushing sexually suggestive content, even without users searching for such material. This new account, set up in India, followed women and other individuals posting sexually explicit content, leading to ads featuring adult pornography and child sexual abuse material with links to Telegram channels. The distribution of both child sexual abuse material and adult pornography are criminal offences in India, while Meta's policy prohibits ads containing adult nudity, genitals, or content that sexually exploits or endangers children. The BBC has reported all the ads and the Telegram channels to Indian authorities. Critics have previously accused the platform of failing to prevent the sharing of criminal content, with concerns now being raised about its ad policies. Meta estimates that ads account for over 90% of Instagram's revenue, with advertising generating almost 98% of its $200 billion (£152 billion) revenue for the financial year ending 2025. While standard posts are generally not checked by Meta's technology until they are published, every advert is reviewed before being allowed on its platforms. Its review system relies primarily on automated technology to check images, video, text, and audio, as well as who the ad targets and where links send them to.