Today Spotify’s CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek discussed how he is against the recent antisemitic comments from Kanye West. During an interview with Reuters, Ek mentioned West’s remarks are just awful before saying Spotify will not be removing West’s music from their platform.
“Because West’s statements were not made in songs or podcasts hosted on Spotify, they do not violate the company’s hate speech policy. It’s really just his music, and his music doesn’t violate our policy. It’s up to his label, if they want to take action or not.” said Ek
Ek’s quote follows a string of other moves made by Spotify to help reduce hate speech on their platform. Back in May 2018 Spotify introduced their hate content and hateful conduct policy. Under the policy the company did temporarily removed R. Kelly and XXXTentacion’s music from their playlists before going back on their decision one month later and allowing XXXTentacion’s music to return to their playlists.
“We do not permit content whose principle purpose is to incite hatred or violence against people because of their race, religion, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation and that it will remove content that violates that standard.” said Spotify