No Evidence Of Child Sexual Abuse Material On Platform, Says YouTube After MeitY Notice

Google-owned YouTube on Monday said thorough investigations into the platform revealed there was no evidence of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), after it was issued notice by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), along with other social media platforms such as Telegram and X, formerly Twitter, to proactively remove CSAM content. The streaming video giant added that it has submitted its response to the regulators.

“We have a long history of successfully fighting child exploitation on YouTube. Based on multiple thorough investigations, we did not detect CSAM on our platform, nor did we receive examples or evidence of CSAM on YouTube from regulators. No form of content that endangers minors is allowed on YouTube, and we will continue to heavily invest in the teams and technologies that detect, remove and deter the spread of this content. We are committed to work with all collaborators in the industry-wide fight to stop the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM),” YouTube spokesperson told ABP Live in a statement.

The company added that “no form of content that endangers minors is allowed on YouTube. That it  will continue to heavily invest in the teams and technologies that detect, remove and deter the spread of this content.

“Additionally, for videos that could expose minors to predatory attention, we disable comments, restrict live features and limit recommendations. YouTube has a strong record of successfully fighting child sexual exploitation on our platforms. We work with the industry by offering expertise and technology to smaller partners and NGOs,” the company added.

To recall, earlier this month, the IT Ministry had sent notices to big social media companies, including YouTube and X, to remove content around child sexual exploitation from their respective platforms.

Meanwhile, Pavel Durov-owned encrypted messaging platform Telegram which was also asked to respond to the ministry’s notice, said it is “always committed” to upholding legal and ethical standards on its platform, particularly in this case of addressing issues related to Child Pornography (CP), CSAM, and Rape and Gang Rape (RGR) content on the Indian internet.