Tag: spotify

Spotify Threatens to Delete Accounts That Fail Digital ID Checks

Spotify has begun warning users that their accounts could be permanently removed unless they complete a new age verification process, part of a broader shift toward stricter content access and censorship controls on digital platforms.

The company has introduced a system that uses facial recognition technology to estimate a user’s age, with further ID verification required if the software detects someone who appears to be underage.

A notification recently began appearing within the app, instructing listeners to verify their age through Yoti, a third-party application that scans faces via smartphone cameras to assess whether a user meets the required age for access.

If the system concludes that a person might be too young, Spotify will ask for additional documentation and show ID. Anyone who does not complete the verification within 90 days will lose access to their account entirely.

According to Spotify’s updated policy page, “You cannot use Spotify if you don’t meet the minimum age requirements for the market you’re in,” adding that users who cannot confirm their age “will be deactivated and eventually deleted.”

The platform, which allows users as young as 13 to join, said it will begin prompting certain individuals to verify their age when they attempt to view content labeled as suitable only for adults.

“Some users will now have to confirm their age by going through an age assurance process,” Spotify stated. This may occur, for example, when someone tries to watch a music video rated 18+ by the rights-holder.

Spotify’s decision arrives amid a wave of newly mandated age-check measures driven by the UK’s new censorship law, the Online Safety Act, which came into force recently.

Under the law, platforms must restrict access to content not suitable for minors, including pornography and violent material, and enforce age thresholds set out in their own user policies. Companies that fail to comply face fines of up to 10 percent of global turnover.

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House probes whether EU, Biden administration pushed Spotify to censor podcasters including Joe Rogan, Steve Bannon

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday launched an investigation into whether the EU and Biden administration pressured Spotify to censor free speech, The Post has learned.

Censorship has been a point of tension for Spotify, which has faced heated backlash for flagging COVID-19 information from podcaster Joe Rogan and banning Steve Bannon from the platform.

“More relevantly, it’s the pressure we are seeing the EU put on companies to censor more,” a source familiar with the probe told The Post.

In a letter sent to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek, US Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) slammed recent laws from the EU and UK that require social media platforms – even those based in the US – to censor “disinformation” and “harmful content” or face massive fines.

“These foreign laws, regulations, and judicial orders may limit or restrict Americans’ access to constitutionally protected speech in the United States. Indeed, that appears to be their very purpose,” Jordan wrote in a copy of the letter obtained by The Post.

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Joe Rogan Reveals Two Former U.S. Presidents Pressured Spotify to Censor His Views on COVID

Joe Rogan has revealed that two former U.S. presidents pressured Spotify to censor his views on COVID.

In his most recent episode with Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, a Houston-based otolaryngologist who wrote a book about her battle to push back against the mainstream narratives about the pandemic, Rogan detailed how aggressively people in powerful places had come after him.

“Spotify got calls from two former presidents,”

Spotify responded by flagging podcasts discussing COVID-19, however, although Rogan insists the effects were overwhelmingly positive.

“I grew by two million subscribers in a month,” he said.

“People started listening, and they started listening, like, ‘Oh, he’s really reasonable and pretty humble about all this stuff and just asking questions.’”

Rogan also criticized media outlets that mocked his use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, accusing them of deliberately misleading the public by calling it a horse dewormer.

“I’m, like, ‘Why aren’t you guys concentrating on the fact that a 55-year-old man is fine three days later during the worst strain?’

“It was during the Delta where everybody’s freaking out. ‘This one’s going to kill us all,’” he continued.

“And I was fine in three days.”

The 57-year-old added that he no longer respects mainstream media after they disgraced themselves countless times.

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Swedish Gangs Use Fake Spotify Hits From Affiliated Ganster Rappers To Launder Money

Swedish criminal gangs are using Spotify to launder money by engineering artificial hits on songs owned by gang affiliates to receive big payouts from the streaming platform.

The revelation comes from an investigative report by the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD), which cites a whistleblower who recounted how gangs are exploiting the Swedish streaming giant to convert their dirty cash into legitimate income.

The informant, known by the fake name of Ismet, told SvD how the gangs, swimming in illegal cash generated through drugs, robberies, fraud, and people trafficking, are converting the proceeds of crime into cryptocurrency before paying individuals, whom he referred to as “Telegram bots,” after recruiting them on the encrypted messaging service to set up fake listens on Spotify on tracks under their control.

“We paid people who did this for us systematically,” Ismet explained.

“The bots ensured that we ended up on the top charts, by creating high pressure on a song. When we entered the top charts, we also got real streams,” he added.

The tracks were usually linked to Swedish gangster rap, which experienced a surge in popularity a few years ago and which has a close affiliation with organized crime groups.

One million streams generate around 60,000 Swedish krona which converts to just over €5,000, and Swedish gangster rap is receiving tens of millions of hits via the platform.

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Spotify buys company that detects “dangerous misinformation” and “harmful content”

Audio streaming service Spotify has acquired Kinzen – a company that detects and flags “dangerous misinformation and harmful content” within audio content by generating and analyzing audio transcriptions.

Spotify began partnering with Kinzen in 2020. In a blog post about the acquisiton, Spotify said Kinzen’s technology helps Spotify “analyze potential harmful content in multiple languages and countries.”

Kinzen has previously received funding from tech giant Meta and Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). IFCN partners with Meta to “fact-check” posts on its platforms.

Kinzen also works with “content moderation service providers engaged by large technology companies,” consults with “public policy makers seeking to better understand and respond to harmful content,” and has previously partnered with other fact-checkers to detect “climate misinformation in audio.”

Kinzen’s technology works by using machine learning models to detect and flag “harmful language, language, claims, narratives, and policy violations” within the audio transcriptions it has generated.

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Spotify reserves the right to limit reach of “misinformation”

Spotify is highlighting its rules around censorship, taking a leaf out of the book of other tech giants who like to find a way to limit speech that their rules don’t actually “outlaw.”

According to Spotify, the content the reach of which it can now decide to restrict is that which “touches” on what are described as sensitive topics – even though this content “does not cross the threshold which would require removal under our Platform Rules.”

Reports supportive of this new policy say that it came in response to the reaction, outside and inside Spotify, to Joe Rogan’s podcast, specifically an episode that looked into the safety and usefulness of Covid vaccines.

The episode produced outrage, amplified by the “friendly” media, branding Rogan as a peddler of misinformation, and agitating musician Neil Young so much that he presented Spotify with an ultimatum: either have him or Rogan on the platform. (Spotify chose Rogan).

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Spotify Purges Dissident Voices In Latest Censorship Escalation

Multiple American podcasters who speak critically of the political status quo in their country are reporting that their channels have been shut down as the censorship campaign against Russia-backed media continues to escalate. These include Moment of Clarity with Lee Camp, The Politics of Survival with Tara Reade, and By Any Means Necessary on Radio Sputnik.

“My podcast ‘Moment of Clarity’ has been removed from Spotify,” Camp tweeted Wednesday. “Let it be known – you can do anti-women, anti-trans or racist content on Spotify but you can’t be anti-war. That’s not allowed.”

“Without explanation or notice, Spotify has removed By Any Means Necessary from their platform, but we’re not going anywhere!” said the program’s Twitter account. “There’s a clear effort in motion to suppress anti-imperialist and anti-capitalist voices, join us in the fight by spreading the word!”

“You can still find my podcast on other platforms even though Spotify inexplicably removed it,” tweeted Reade.

This comes as Spotify closes its office in Russia in response to the invasion of Ukraine.

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White House Recommends Spotify Do More to Censor Joe Rogan

The White House indicated Tuesday that Spotify’s attempts to address what they described as coronavirus “misinformation” on podcaster Joe Rogan’s interviews was not a strong enough response to the freedom of speech controversy.

Spotify announced a decision Sunday to include content advisory warnings on Rogan’s interviews about the coronavirus pandemic with sources dissenting from the government narrative about the virus.

“It’s a positive step but more can be done,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during the daily briefing on Tuesday.

Spotify acted to address the situation after musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell asked the company to remove their music from their platform as part of a protest of Rogan’s interviews.

But Psaki called on technology and media platforms to do more to censor what she described as “misinformation” about the virus.

“That certinaly includes Spotifly (sic) she said, mispronouncing the tech platform’s name.

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Fake News: Spotify Hasn’t Lost $2 Billion Because Of Neil Young

A slew of reports claiming that Spotify has had $2 billion wiped off its market value because of the actions of Neil Young and others in opposing Joe Rogan’s content on the platform are fake news.

Variety and others ran headlines over the weekend like “Spotify Lost More Than $2 Billion in Market Value After Neil Young Pulled His Music Over Joe Rogan’s Podcast.”

As pointed out by many on social media, however, the drop in value of Spotify stock is part of a longer downward trend that started before Neil Young uttered a word about Rogan.

Indeed, Spotify’s stock has actually increased in value since the Neil Young driven backlash.

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