Spotify acquires content moderation tech company Kinzen to address platform safety issues

Dublin, Ireland-based content moderation tech company Kinzen is being acquired by the streamer. The deal terms were not made public. Kinzen's technology will be put to use to help the company better moderate podcasts and other audio using a combination of machine learning and human expertise

The mission of Kinzen is to protect public conversations from dangerous misinformation and harmful content.

The controversy over the spread of Covid-19 vaccine-related misinformation on Joe Rogan's show caused a public backlash and a PR nightmare for the company. 270 physicians and scientists signed an open letter to Spotify demanding that it create misinformation policies to address the issue. Neil Young was one of the artists who pulled their music from the service in protest.

The changes that were made to the policies around Covid-19 and misinformation didn't make much of a difference. The creation of the Safety Advisory Council is part of the process of getting a better handle on the content published to its platform.

Today's announcement of the acquisition of Kinzen is an indication that even that step wasn't enough.

Kinzen's solutions are designed to help platforms more quickly respond to content moderation issues in real-time by using a combination of technology and human expertise.

Kinzen has tools that help platforms plan ahead by getting early warnings about evolving narratives and trends that could be used to spread misinformation. A broad range of areas, like medical misinformation, antisemitism, hate content, climate misinformation, violent extremists, and other dangerous misinformation are analyzed. Audio, video, and text based content can be addressed with actionable insights provided by it. This cross- platform support is important because of the expansion into video podcasts and the desire to cater to advertisers who don't want their brand next to toxic content.

Kinzen has the ability to analyze content in hundreds of languages and dialects, which will help the company detect emerging threats.

Kinzen and its exceptional team have been a long-time partner of ours. As a result of the deal, we will be able to improve our ability to detect and address harmful content and better consider local context. She said that the investment expands the approach to platform safety and underscores how seriously the company takes its commitment to creating a safe and enjoyable experience.

Kinzen has a unique strength that we see as essential to identifying emerging abuse trends in markets and moderating potentially dangerous content at scale. The proactive approach we are taking in this important space is demonstrated by the expansion of our team.

Kinzen raised over two million dollars in funding over the course of 2 rounds, the last being a November 2020 seed round.

Developing...