Bloomberg calls the Indian govt’s notice directing Meta to remove child sexual abuse content a ‘regulatory headache’: How the focus shifted from protecting children to compliance burden

When it comes to India, the same Western media that cannot help but sermonise human rights, sensitivity, justice, child protection, and whatnot, forgets to practice what its own unsolicited sermons preach. Bloomberg has received backlash for calling the Indian government’s notification to Meta for the removal of child porn, a ‘regulatory headache’ for the US tech giant. On 5th July, Bloomberg published a news item, written by Sankalp Phartiyal, headlined, “India Tells Meta to Remove Child Abuse Content from Instagram”. The article covered the notice issued by the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) to Meta Platforms ordering it to take down the Instagram ads promoting child sexual abuse content and give a detailed explanation on the matter within seven days. Despite being a short and straightforward news item, Bloomberg triggered an online backlash with its insensitive “regulatory headache” framing. “India notified Meta Platforms Inc. that it needs to remove sexual content involving children from its platforms, including Instagram, marking the latest regulatory headache for the US tech giant,” the Bloomberg article reads. Bloomberg calling a government order to remove child sexual abuse content a “regulatory headache” is utterly tone-deaf and insensitive reporting. Child sexual abuse is not some usual corporate gripe about data rules, competition policy, or free speech tussles; it involves real sexual abuse of minors. Neither Bloomberg nor its reporter Sankalp Phartiyal need to be apprised that child sexual abuse is one of the most serious crimes imaginable. Despite the apparent seriousness of the matter. Bloomberg demonstrated sheer lack of editorial ethics and framed the Indian government’s notice seeking removal of child porn ads and explanation from Meta as an inconvenience to the social media giant. Advertently or inadvertently, Bloomberg ended up deflecting the focus from the harm of creating and publicising child porn ads on Instagram and made Meta’s compliance responsibility come across as a ‘burden’ even as it profited from such degenerate paid ads, and a bigger issue than child porn advertisements itself. Calling out Bloomberg’s insensitivity, one Indian X user wrote, “Headache? Removal of sexual content involving children is a Headache to you.” Headache?Sexual content involving children removal is a Headache to you.— Sandeep (@IndiaUnleashed_) July 5, 2026 Another one questioned, “Why would removal of child sexual content from a social media platform be a regulatory headache for an American tech giant? Does the US allow child sexual content on Meta platforms?” One X user wrote, “Bloomberg’s problem isn’t that child sexual abuse content exists on Meta’s platforms – it’s that India is forcing Meta to remove it. They call this moral duty a ‘regulatory headache’. Bloomberg is getting Pakistanified and now acts like pedophilia isn’t even an issue.” It appears that Bloomberg took this insensitive liberty and minimised the gravity of the issue, since the issue is from India. Bloomberg has earned notoriety for peddling anti-India propaganda through its opinion pieces, often by Indian brown sepoys; however, exhibiting such insensitivity in a child abuse-related incident is a new low. OpIndia has reported earlier how the Western media comes up with unimaginably weird narratives, contributing to an already all-time-high anti-India racism and hatred.