Meta removes 50 lakh objectionable posts in India:Country head says criminals are changing tactics, making them harder to track

Meta’s next priority in India is to expand shopping, bill payments and the use of government services alongside conversations on WhatsApp. The company’s India head, Arun Srinivas, says AI will make people’s everyday tasks easier and help small businesses reach customers. However, he also said that Meta has removed 50 lakh pieces of objectionable content. But bad actors are constantly changing their methods. They now direct people to external websites or apps. Our ability to view or track activities taking place there is limited. Arun shared his views with Bhaskar on WhatsApp Pay, AI agents and action against content related to the sexual exploitation of children. Question: How will AI agents change the way people shop? When will Muse launch in India? At present, someone can see sweets on Instagram, move to WhatsApp and place an order to buy them. AI, and eventually agents that can complete tasks independently, will make this process more seamless. Muse has already launched in the United States and Canada. It was recently launched in Japan and Singapore as well. We are also excited about its launch in India. We will share information as the launch draws closer. Question: In places where Muse is available, what are people using it for? Companies such as Walmart and Uber are associated with this in the US. People can book a cab without opening another app. An effort will be made to bring similar features to India. They could be used for everything from ordering food and coffee to planning trips. We want AI to serve as a personal assistant. Question: AI bots from other companies are also offering services such as ordering and payments on WhatsApp. Will there be a conflict with Muse? It is difficult to comment on the products and performance of other companies. Ultimately, users will decide which service they want to use. The features promised by our agent will have to be delivered. Question: Why does child sexual abuse material keep appearing on the platform? We have a zero-tolerance policy towards such material. More than 50 lakh pieces of such content were removed from Facebook and Instagram in India during the first half of this year. We identified and removed 98% of it ourselves before receiving any complaints. We use AI-based detection systems for this. Question: What is the challenge in stopping this? The challenge is that those involved in wrongdoing constantly change their methods. When restrictions on posts were tightened, they moved to advertisements. When monitoring there was increased, they began using advertisements that appear normal on the surface but direct people to external websites or apps. Our ability to monitor or track activities taking place there is limited. We have partnered with the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre. We will report such cases directly to the cybercrime portal so that the relevant authorities can receive the information needed to take action.