Spotify can’t seem to get out of their own way lately. While the streaming service has hit record numbers of subscribers, the company’s faltering public image and apparently large financial losses continue to mount. Today, news broke that puts the streaming pioneer in even hotter water, at least with a large segment of its user base.
According to Consequence of Sound, Spotify recently added podcasts of Alex Jones and his controversial show InfoWars. For those that have managed to not know who Jones is, he’s one of the most controversial right-wing pundits to roll around since Rush Limbaugh started infuriating moderate-to-left-leaning folks in the late ’80s.
Like his predecessor Limbaugh, Jones’ Infowars peddles in fairly far-fetched conspiracy theories (Pizzagate and Sandy Hook crisis actors being two of the most egregious examples – the latter of which led to parents of massacred children being harassed by his cult-like following) mixed with a bastardized version of “conservative”/right-wing philosophy and talking points. Obviously, when a certain segment of music consumers discovered the news that the infamous talk show host had been added to the roster of podcasts available for streaming on Spotify, they were a little outraged.
This information was discovered by another podcaster, Jared Holt of Sh!tpostpodcast – also behind the site Right Wing Watch, who pointed out on Twitter that “It is incredibly difficult to get podcasts hosted on Spotify.”
Almost instantly, users started threatening to pull their subscription if Jones’ podcasts weren’t removed from the service. There’s the argument that shutting out Jones could be seen as impinging on freedom of speech but as a private entity, Spotify is free to censor any speech they deem unsavory.
The streaming service was just in the news over their “hateful conduct” policy that saw artists like the late XXXtentacion and R. Kelly being censored (removed from the service in some shape or form). After blowback from the music community at large, particularly Kendrick Lamar, who threatened to pull his extremely popular discography from the service unless they reversed course, Spotify acquiesced.
Other technology companies have kept a watchful eye on Jones and his at-times wildly offensive stances. Facebook banned him for 30 days and removed several videos after he violated terms of use on the site. However, this was limited to Jones’ personal Facebook page, allowing the InfoWars page to continue to post content that features the media personality. CoS reports (via the New York Times) that a Facebook spokeswoman has stated the company has considered removing his profile completely if he continues to violate the company’s policies. From that same NYT article, a taste of the sorts of themes explored in Jones’ videos: “an inflammatory rant in which he accused Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, of supporting pedophilia and pantomimed shooting him.” Despite the fact that Mueller probably has a pretty good slander case against Jones, that particular video doesn’t violate Facebook’s policies.
YouTube has taken similar measures, removing four videos from his channel (an action that automatically triggered a 90-day ban on the site). He was given a strike after calling David Hogg, a Parkland massacre survivor (and a child at the time of the attack) a crisis actor. This strike was apparently removed after he didn’t violate their policies again after 90 days. Three strikes would result in a termination of his account.
Ironically, Jones promoted his downloadable podcasts on Spotify and another service, Spreaker. In the post, he railed against being censored by big tech giants. Perhaps it’s a premonition of what’s to come in the next few days?
More from Jared Holt:
UPDATE (8/1): Pitchfork reports that certain episodes of Jones’ podcasts have been removed from the streaming service. The article includes a statement that Spotify provided to Pitchfork, indicating that the site takes reports of hate speech seriously and has removed specific episodes of “The Alex Jones Show” podcast due to violations of their hate content policy. Stay tuned here for any further developments on this story. See the full statement below:
“We take reports of hate content seriously and review any podcast episode or song that is flagged by our community. Spotify can confirm it has removed specific episodes of ‘The Alex Jones Show’ podcast for violating our hate content policy.”
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