After an article titled "I Just Found 37 White Supremacist Hate Bands on Spotify" appeared on Digital Music News, the streaming giant has taken action by removing all hate bands from its platform. All of the bands were previously flagged as white supremacist groups by a Southern Poverty Law Center investigation in 2014 and ostensibly flew under the radar in Spotify's gargantuan artist database.
“Illegal content or material that favors hatred or incites violence against race, religion, sexuality or the like is not tolerated by us,” said a Spotify spokeswoman in a statement released via Billboard. “Spotify takes immediate action to remove any such material as soon as it has been brought to our attention. We are glad to have been alerted to this content – and have already removed many of the bands identified today, whilst urgently reviewing the remainder,” the statement read.
Spotify isn't the only major company to take action following the deadly Charlottesville, Virginia white supremacist rally. GoDaddy and Google both severed ties with neo-Nazi websites this week.
Moreover, Spotify announced a new playlist called "Patriotic Passion," which they described in a tweet as, “…a soundtrack to an America worth fighting for.”
Our Patriotic Passion playlist is a soundtrack to an America worth fighting for. https://t.co/6KU4Slx55c
— Spotify (@Spotify) August 16, 2017