Spotify removed thousands of phony drug sales podcasts, investigation finds

In a significant move, Spotify has removed over 57,000 fraudulent podcasts that promoted illegal online pharmacies, following an investigation prompted by earlier reports from CNN and other media outlets. This crackdown comes after Senator Maggie Hassan initiated an inquiry last year, highlighting how these deceptive podcasts violated Spotify's community guidelines and posed risks to users by directing them to potentially harmful websites. The investigation, released Thursday, raised critical questions about Spotify's capability to effectively identify and eliminate harmful content before it reaches listeners. Senator Hassan criticized the platform for its delayed response, insisting that it must enhance its efforts to protect users, especially as criminals increasingly leverage AI for nefarious activities. "Online platforms need to step up, protect their users, and enforce comprehensive strategies to remove illegal content," she stated. Spotify characterized these deceptive podcasts as a "spam attack" aimed at increasing the visibility of illegal pharmacies through search engines, emphasizing that they were not specifically targeting Spotify users for drug sales. The company’s spokesperson, Laura Batey, assured that whenever such attempts are detected, Spotify acts swiftly to remove the infringing content and improve its detection systems. Despite Spotify's tools allowing anyone to create and distribute podcasts, the platform strictly prohibits content that promotes the sale of illegal goods, including drugs. The company employs both automated systems and human reviewers to enforce these rules. According to Spotify, none of the removed drug sale podcasts generated revenue on their platform, and prior to the investigation, they had already taken down some similar content. Between May and November of last year, Spotify reported a dramatic increase in removals, eliminating around 3,500 podcast accounts and 57,000 episodes, compared to fewer than 100 accounts in the previous year. Nevertheless, the company acknowledged that they had “less complete data for previous years” and had not tracked removals in this manner before. The investigation revealed that a staggering 94% of the removed podcasts had never been streamed, while 99% had recorded fewer than 10 streams. However, some podcasts attracted more attention, including two episodes with nearly 13,000 streams that promoted the sale of modafinil using cryptocurrencies. The lack of tracking on user interactions with hyperlinks in podcast episodes leaves uncertainty about how many listeners may have visited these illicit sites. Spotify has a protocol for referring concerning content to law enforcement, although it did not do so for any of the drug-related podcasts taken down last year. Critics pointed out that one of the identified podcasts linked to a site that was later seized by federal authorities, further highlighting the potential dangers of unregulated content. The report also indicated that the issue of fraudulent drug sale podcasts is not limited to Spotify. Similar deceptive content was found across other platforms like iHeart, Amazon Music, and Podchaser. Hassan emphasized that these findings should serve as a wake-up call regarding the prevalence of harmful content on various online streaming services.