Fans of techno may be surprised by a speech from Hitler.
Dozens of white supremacist and neo-nazi bands distribute their music on the popular streaming platform, according to a report from the Anti-Defamation League.
According to the report by the ADL Center on Extremism, the company has decided not to take action. In February of this year, the ADL warned that the policies of the platform were not up to par. The civil rights group says that they do not appear to be strictly enforced.
Users who want to report prohibited content can only do so on the platform's desktop app. It's almost certain that this will be a roadblock to enforce the policies as most of the users listen via the company's mobile apps.
40 white supremacist artists were discovered by the ADL. Calum Farley told the Washington Post that there is likely much more. Some of the artists were followed by thousands of users on the platform. Some of the artist's accounts were verified by the service.
The music ranged from punk to metal. There were a lot of white supremacist references in the songs. The DJ who included the Hitler speech in one of his songs also has a track about the antisemitic and Great Replacement conspiracy theory. The artist behind a song covered in white supremacist tattoos gave a Nazi salute in photos found on his profile at Gab.
According to the ADL report, there are a lot of problems with the service. A neo-nazi metal band was included in a public "Black Metal essentials" list. ADL researchers found that the platform would recommend users to listen to white supremacist music based on their listening history.
The cover art for the albums of these white supremacist bands doesn't obscure their hatred. There are photos depicting the neo-nazi Black Sun symbol known as the "Sonnenrad" and the Iron Cross in the report.
White supremacist music was hosted on the platform. Dozens of these bands were removed from the platform in the last year. One major concern is that the discovery of these bands on the platform can potentially lead users to seek out more information regarding the hate speech in the lyrics.
The ADL says thatSpotify has a lot of work to do.
There is a new date of Sept. 23, 2022. The time is PDT.
Adam Grossberg gave a statement after the story was published.
To ensure that all of the content on our platform is in keeping with our platform rules, we use a variety of automated and human detection measures.
Our experts review and take action against violative content on our platform. Since the beginning of the year, we have removed more than 12,000 episodes, 19,000 playlists, 160 music tracks, and 20 albums for violating our hate content policy. Much of the content was found to be in violation of our platform rules.
Even with our continued innovation and investments, there is always more work to be done. To ensure our policies, enforcement mechanisms, and partnerships address the needs of our community of global users, creators, and artists, we established the safety advisory council. We are willing to engage in a dialogue with the ADL so that we can benefit from their expertise and continue to improve the safety of our platform.
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