Earlier this year, paid ads on Instagram in India were found directing users to child sexual abuse material after passing through Meta’s ad review process. Since then, Meta has made several changes to how it responds to reports, from looking for the same links across Facebook and Instagram to reporting directly to India’s cybercrime portal. We sat down with Meta India Managing Director Arun Srinivas to ask how those ads got through, who was accountable and how users could tell whether the changes were working. We also asked him when Muse AI could come to India, how small businesses are using AI to make ads and where WhatsApp fits into India’s payments market.How Instagram ads slipped through review“We have zero tolerance for any content or ads involving child sexual abuse or child sexual exploitation on our platforms,” Srinivas said. He said the ads appeared harmless on Instagram and led to external sites or apps. “It’s difficult for the classifier to understand what’s happening off-platform.”Srinivas said Meta now searches for ads, posts and comments containing a reported link across its platforms and takes action against the accounts involved. He said Meta proactively removed more than 33 million pieces of content across Facebook and Instagram in the first half of 2026, including more than 5.3 million in India. He put the proactive detection rate at over 98% and said Meta had begun reporting directly to India’s cybercrime portal through the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre, or I4C.When we asked how users could independently verify that the changes were working, Srinivas pointed to Meta’s detection tools, user reports and cooperation with law enforcement. The figures he cited covered overall removals. He gave no breakdown for paid ads and did not identify who was accountable for the ads that passed review.Reels drives festive discovery as small businesses turn to AISrinivas said Meta’s research found that discovery on its platforms influenced nine in 10 festive purchase decisions. “The primary surface is Reels, and creators have a big role to play,” he said. He added that 60% of online shoppers this festive season came from Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets.Srinivas said small businesses are using AI in Meta’s Ads Manager to create ads and refine them based on performance. “More than 90%—93%—of the businesses we surveyed want to use more AI in their marketing, and about 85% believe it’s made them more productive,” he said.Meta hasn’t announced a date for Muse AI in IndiaSrinivas told us he had used Muse to plan a trip, find a better price while shopping and get a reminder to check in for a flight. “We’re all waiting to launch it in India, and we’ll have more to share as we navigate when and how we come into the market,” he said.One challenge is getting the agent to understand how people switch between languages in everyday conversations. “How do you work with a blend of languages and make sure the agent still understands what you do?” he said. He also pointed to partnerships with retailers and other services as important for completing purchases and bookings. He named no India partners for Muse during our conversation.Instagram wants longer videos. How will creators get paid?We asked why creators should invest in longer videos when much of their income still comes from brand deals and affiliate links. Srinivas pointed to Instagram’s Creator Marketplace and an affiliate commerce pilot with Flipkart and Myntra, which he said had attracted more than two lakh creator sign-ups.“We understand they have to be viable and find value in what they do,” he said. Srinivas did not announce a direct revenue-sharing model for long-form video. On live shopping, he said, “We will certainly enable it,” adding that commerce platforms would decide whether to pursue pilots of their own.WhatsApp looks for a bigger role in paymentsSrinivas said WhatsApp is focusing on payments that fit what people already do in the app, from splitting a restaurant bill to sending money to a contact. He said the Bharat Connect integration gives users access to more than 22,700 billers for services such as electricity, gas and telecom.“We have to find a way to supplement who we are and what we do with payments,” he said. He also tied the payments push to Meta’s plans for AI agents. “With agentic commerce and agentic AI, we need to strengthen our payments product and the features we offer, because a lot of this will happen natively on our platform.” Add as a Reliable and Trusted News Source
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