Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Spotify Faces Backlash For Hosting Alex Jones Show


Spotify is facing some online backlash for the music service's hosting of "The Alex Jones Show," the radio show featuring the conspiracy theorist and host of far-right site Infowars, reports USAToday.

A deluge of commenters began hitting Twitter Monday morning, calling for the music streaming service to remove Jones' radio show from its offerings.

Spotify is the latest online site to get hit with complaints about Jones. Earlier this month, Facebook faced pressure of its own to explain why Infowars, a site known for promoting conspiracy theories, remains on the social network even as it cracks down on the spread of fabricated news.

And Jones last week had four videos removed by YouTube from his channel on the video sharing site, with YouTube saying the channel violated the company's graphic content policy and suspended Jones from broadcasting live for 90 days.

As word spread that Spotify had begun hosting "The Alex Jones Show" on its service -- there's more than a year's worth of broadcasts -- comments began appearing on Twitter. Many said they would cancel their subscription. Others urged users to protest in Spotify's idea submissions forum.

Back in May, Spotify, as part of its Hate Content and Hateful Conduct policy, removed music from R. Kelly and rapper XXXTentacion from its playlists, a move reflecting the concerns raised by the #MeToo movement.

At the time, R. Kelly faced two new accusers alleging the singer committed acts of physical abuse and sexual coercion on themselves or their loved ones. Since then, the singer has released new music in which he admitted to liking younger girls and rough sex in the lyrics, but denied he was a pedophile and pushed back against allegations that he operated a sex cult, as Buzzfeed reported last July.

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