SPOTIFY: "WE'RE TALKING ABOUT
HATE SPEECH"

Following up on Daniel Ek's mea culpa and other announcements, hints and pantomimes, Spotify has posted a notice regarding an update of its "new policy around hate content and conduct." Simultaneously there came word that XXXtentacion had been restored to the ultra-important Rap Caviar playlist.

"While we believe our intentions are good," the notice reads, "the language was too vague, we created confusion and concern, and didn't spend enough time getting input from our own team and key partners before sharing new guidelines."

Further, the post reads, "We created concern that an allegation might affect artists’ chances of landing on a Spotify playlist and negatively impact their future. Some artists even worried that mistakes made in their youth would be used against them. That's not what Spotify is about. We don't aim to play judge and jury."

The upshot? "Therefore, we are moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct." Furthermore, the "hate content" part is apparently being refined. "We’re not talking about offensive, explicit, or vulgar content – we’re talking about hate speech."

How narrowly will "hate speech" be defined? Will human curators parse the difference, or will an algorithm be programmed to look for certain phrases? How might that work? Stay tuned.

You can read the whole thing here.