Spotify Creates ‘Safety Advisory Council’ on ‘Hate Speech,’ ‘Disinformation’ Following Joe Rogan Backlash

Music and podcast streaming service Spotify recently announced the formation of a “Safety Advisory Council” to provide third-party input on issues including “hate speech”, disinformation, and extremism. The move comes after an ongoing backlash against the platform for not censoring Joe Rogan enough to satisfy leftists.

CNBC reports that Spotify recently announced the formation of a “Safety Advisory Council” to provide guidance and input on issues such as “hate speech”, disinformation, and online abuse. The formation of the new group appears to be a reaction to the backlash the company received earlier this year over The Joe Rogan Experience podcast — which woke leftists claimed spread misinformation.

The new council consists of 18 progressives including representatives from Washington, DC civil rights group the Center for Democracy & Technology, the University of Gothenburg in Germany and the Institute for Technology and Society in Brazil. The council will advise Spotify on how best to deal with issues on its platform.

Dustee Jenkins, Spotify’s global head of public affairs, commented: “The idea is to bring in these world-renowned experts, many of whom have been in this space for a number of years, to realize a relationship with them. And to ensure that it’s not talking to them when we’re in the middle of a situation…Instead, we’re meeting with them on a pretty regular basis, so that we can be much more proactive about how we’re thinking about these issues across the company.”

The council is reportedly solely advisory in nature and has no real power to enact policy changes at Spotify. Spotify will reportedly choose what issues to submit to the council for review.

Spotify’s head of trust and safety, Sarah Hoyle, said that the council was not formed as a reaction to “any particular creator or situation,” but as a recognition of the challenges of operating a global service at a time when information and threats are evolving.

“How do we augment the internal expertise that we already have at Spotify, to tap into these folks whose life’s work has been studying this, and they’re on the ground in markets all around the world, just like our users, just like our creators,” said Hoyle.

Read more at CNBC here.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com