New Delhi, Dec 30 Leading music streaming platform Spotify found itself in a controversy when some users saw sexually-explicit material in search results on the platform.
According to a report in The Verge on Monday, a Reddit user posted a screenshot of a Spotify search that had “a pornographic video tucked into suggested results for the rapper M.I.A”.
A Spotify spokesperson told The Verge that such content "has been removed due to violation of its policies".
According to the music streaming platform’s content moderation policies, it removes content that contains sexually explicit material.
Recent posts on Reddit have shown examples of “unexpected explicit video in search results” on Spotify and “even erotic audio tracks being suggested in one user’s Discovery Weekly algorithmic playlist”.
A Vice story in 2022 had claimed that there was “a surprising amount of people who’ve tried to upload hardcore sex images on Spotify”.
According to reports, the app has a setting to block explicit content playback in users’ profiles, but even with it turned on, these searches evade that filter.
Spotify’s terms of use forbid ”pornography or visual depictions of genitalia or nudity presented for the purpose of sexual gratification.”
The music streaming platform was launched in 2008. Today, more listeners than ever can discover, manage and enjoy over 100 million tracks, 6 million podcasts titles, and 350,000 audiobooks a la carte on Spotify.
“We are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service with more than 640 million users, including 252 million subscribers in more than 180 markets,” according to the company.
Spotify’s global premium subscriber base grew to just over 252 million paying users for the third quarter of 2024 (ended September 30).
The total global monthly active users (MAUs) grew 11 per cent on-year to 640 million in Q3 2024.
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