Spotify has faced an amount of criticism following delayed response to removing alt-right, white supremacist content off their soundboard. The music-streaming app’s biggest flak came from users being unable to report the controversial matters by way of their mobile device, but instead having to do it by way of a computerized desktop version; a less popular feature with the app when compared to the mobile carry-on version.
The site also suffered backlash when it was unveiled that when users were easily engaged with the content (notably after listening to black metal music in related section), they were then greeted with options to add the white nationalist songs to playlists where the default photo would load to be a Nazi symbol.
Spotify began the crackdown after Billboard broke a report on the site hosting such content, according to Pitchfork.
The report signified that Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism (ADL) had found 40 searchable artists displaying such hateful behavior, with them being found through “catch-all genre terms” like “RAC” – a misleading term that often gets mistaken for Rock Against Communism.
After the search, Spotify released a brief statement that read: “[We are upholding] a much more explicit anti-extremism policy […] We take content concerns very seriously [and use both] algorithmic and human detection measures.” This coming amid ADL’s counter-claim that no such policy was ever strictly enforced.
Since then, over 19,000 playlists, “nearly 20” albums worth, among other amounts of the racist content have been removed.
Leave a Comment