Now Reading: Meta India MD on CSAM, payments and Muse AI launch timing
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Meta India MD on CSAM, payments and Muse AI launch timing
The Story in Brief
Meta has removed over 5 million pieces of child sexual abuse material in India in the first half of 2025, India head Arun Srinivas told Business Standard. More than 98% was detected proactively. Meta recently became the first platform to partner directly with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre to report cases, he said. Bad actors are shifting tactics to benign ads that redirect off-platform, Srinivas said, and Meta is investing in tools to track that activity.
WhatsApp Pay has roughly doubled transaction volume and value over the past year but held only 0.8% of UPI volumes in September 2026, according to BigGo Finance. Meta is expanding to cards, net banking and Bharat Connect bill payments covering over 22,000 billers. Krushna Shah, the new global head, said personal messages remain end-to-end encrypted. Meta is also launching generative ad tools and AI dubbing in six Indian languages, but has not yet set a date for a standalone Muse AI launch in India.
Srinivas said more than nine in ten purchases are discovered on Meta platforms, and affiliate commerce programs with Flipkart and Myntra have drawn millions of creator sign-ups. Meta is piloting Meta Business Agent in India, an AI tool to convert inquiries into sales.
Indian Opinion Analysis
Meta India MD Arun Srinivas touched on three themes in interviews published Thursday: child safety, payments and artificial intelligence. The Economic Times interview, which is primarily about CSAM, carries Srinivas’s detailed account of proactive detection and a new partnership with I4C. BigGo Finance focuses on quick commerce, short-form drama and a three-part advertising agenda, naming Flipkart and Myntra partnerships and giving the 0.8% WhatsApp Pay UPI share. Business Standard leads with payments strategy, calls the journey “beginning to take off,” and includes the 5 million content removals figure. All three sources agree on the core facts: WhatsApp Pay has doubled volume from a small base, Muse India timing remains unannounced, and Meta has zero tolerance for CSAM. The differences are in emphasis: ET leads with harm mitigation, BigGo with commercial growth, and Business Standard with payments infrastructure. Uniform coverage drives each framing, with no outlet taking a government-critical or pro-government stance on the issues covered.
Coverage: 3 sources, 3 neutral
Sources (3): economictimes.indiatimes.com (neutral report), biggo.com (neutral report), business-standard.com (neutral report)
This brief was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above, so one read covers every framing they carry. Methodology and corrections.
