To,

Mark Zuckerberg (CEO, Meta)

Adam Mosseri (Head of Instagram)

Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India

Instagram is a public app used by millions of families, teenagers, and children in India. It was never meant to be an adult entertainment platform, but a major policy loophole is changing that—and creating a serious threat to our society.

A rapidly growing number of accounts are using Instagram's built-in "Subscription" feature to run soft-pornography businesses right inside the app. They post highly provocative videos—like strategic undressing, "changing" routines, or explicit modeling—on the public feed to bait users into paying a monthly fee to unlock adult content hidden behind a paywall.

Why This is a Crisis for India:

We cannot look at this trend in isolation. India is already fighting a massive, complex battle to curb violence, harassment, and crimes against women. 

Normalizing this loophole completely derails those efforts for three critical reasons:

It Feeds the Cycle of Objectification:

On one hand, our country is trying to strict laws to punish gender-based violence. On the other end, mainstream apps like Instagram are allowing the public feed to become an advertising arena where bodies are teased and commercialized for quick money. This heavily promotes objectification, which directly fuels the toxic mindsets behind offline harassment.

It Exploits Vulnerable Youth:

The lack of regulation normalizes the idea that selling intimate, arousing content is an acceptable, easy way for young and innocent women to make a living. Instead of empowering women through skill-based professional growth, it pushes them into an unregulated gray market of digital exploitation.

It Renders Safety Laws Useless:

When algorithms push soft-pornographic teasers onto daily public feeds accessible to minors, it creates a hyper-sexualized online environment. Trying to curb real-world societal issues becomes impossible if the primary digital space our youth consumes is actively normalizing explicit behavior without any checks.

The Corporate Double Standard : Meta’s safety filters are highly relaxed inside private, paid subscriber spaces. This means Meta is actively processing these payments, taking a financial cut, and profiting from soft-porn content on an all-ages app. Reporting accounts one by one is a losing battle. We need systemic policy regulation.

What We Are Demanding:

We call on Meta and Indian Regulatory Authorities to enforce three simple rules under the IT Guidelines:

1. Mandatory 18+ Age Gates: Any account that turns on paid Subscriptions or promotes adult links must be hidden behind a strict 18+ age verification check. Their profiles must be completely blocked from search results and feeds for minors.

2. No Adult Marketing on Public Feeds: Explicitly ban creators from using public Reels, Stories, or captions to tease or market their private adult content. If a public post is used as a commercial for an adult paywall, the account must lose its monetization instantly.

3. Apply Unified Safety Standards: Apply the exact same strict safety standards to private subscriber stories as public reels. Private spaces must not be a safe haven for soft pornography.

Why Your Sign Matters:

This is not about restricting personal freedom; it is about corporate accountability and public decency. If Meta wants to operate and profit in India, it must respect the safety of our digital ecosystem. We cannot talk about women’s safety in the physical world while allowing mainstream digital platforms to compromise it for profit.

Sign this petition to demand that Meta closes this loophole and keeps our public digital space safe and accountable.