US Tech giants caught in legal tangle over CSAM reporting, discuss compliance at I4C meeting

The Supreme Court judgement was passed in 2024

A 2024 Supreme Court ruling on reporting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) has put US-based social media platforms in a legal bind—complying with India’s directive could violate US laws while following US requirements risks non-compliance with the Indian court’s mandate.

This was discussed in a January 30 meeting called by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) on reportage of CSAM content found on these platforms, multiple sources told Moneycontrol. I4C CEO Rajesh Kumar, and representatives of Meta, Google, Snap, Sharechat and others attended the meeting.

During the meeting, officials of I4C pointed out that the Ministry of Home Affairs has developed the Sahyog portal, as a one-stop platform for reporting CSAM content. The Sahyog portal would then redirect the complaints to authorised law enforcement agencies.

However, it was pointed out to I4C officials that US-based platforms, as mandated under US laws, can only report CSAM content through the US-based NGO, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC).

The NCMEC in turn, as per a MoU between the NGO and the Indian government, reports these cases to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and the NCRB forwards this to the concerned State authorities in India through the national cybercrime reporting portal.

However, in 2024, a Supreme Court order mandated that social media intermediaries not only report CSAM cases to NCMEC but also to the local police or the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) in India under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

The judgement says, "It has been brought to the notice of this Court that social media intermediaries do not report such cases of child abuse and exploitation to the local authorities specified under POCSO and rather only comply with the requirements stipulated in the MOU."

"Social media intermediaries in addition to reporting the commission or the likely apprehension of commission of any offence under POCSO to the National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) are also obligated to report the same to authorities specified under Section 19 of POCSO i.e., the Special Juvenile Police Unit (SJPU) or the local police," the judgement adds.

During the meeting, platforms pointed out that complying with this judgement risks violating US laws, and vice versa.

"For US platforms, it is essentially a sticky situation in terms of complying with the Indian law. They are mandated to report through NCMEC, but because of the SC order now there is a conflict," a source aware of the matter said.

the source added that a possible solution for this would be a form of agreement between I4C and NCMEC.

Moneycontrol has reached out to I4C, Meta, Snap, and Google with queries on the matter and the article will be updated when a response is received. Sharechat declined to comment.

During the meeting, officials also explored the idea of installing APIs at the platform level and connecting it with Sahyog to facilitate CSAM reportage. In the coming days, platforms are expected to submit their viewpoints regarding the matter to I4C.

The prevalence of CSAM on social media platforms in India has been a growing concern, with authorities reporting a surge in cases flagged through global monitoring systems. According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) and international watchdogs, India ranks among the top countries receiving CSAM-related reports from platforms. The National Cybercrime Reporting Portal has also seen an uptick in complaints, prompting stricter scrutiny from Indian regulators.