Spotify is an audio playground of sorts, but it’s now facing an onslaught of hardcore pornographic content that’s a direct violation of the streaming platform’s own rules.
Frequent users of the on-demand streaming service have likely encountered goofy edits to sexualized or explicit album covers, such as the artwork for Impaled Nazarene’s Vigorous and liberating death being covered in simple underwear designs on – gasp – naked skeletons, as well as the more optimal placement of a bra on a demon goat’s breasts and a red heart on a sex act in which two of the five skeletons are engaged.
Yet every Cannibal Corpse album remains unreleased, including their classic 1992 release, Tomb of the Mutilatedwhich features a zombie performing oral sex on another zombie as its body decomposes, so it’s unclear by what standards Spotify deems censorship necessary.
When it comes to images of hardcore pornography not involving skeletons gone weird or Vincent Locke’s drawings of carnal zombies, however, one would imagine it’s pretty clear what kind of sexual content violates Spotify’s own rulesone of which has been duplicated below:
Sensitive content
We have tons of amazing content on Spotify, but there are some things we don’t allow on our platform. Do not post excessively violent or graphic content, and do not post sexually explicit content. What to avoid:
Content that promotes graphic or gratuitous depictions of violence, gore, or other offensive imagery includes, but is not limited to:
severely mutilated or dismembered bodies
promoting cruelty or torture to animals
Content containing sexually explicit material includes, but is not limited to:pornography or visual depictions of genitals or nudity presented for the purpose of sexual gratification
advocate or glorify sexual themes relating to rape, incest or bestiality
Despite this rule, both Vice and New York Post reported finding a wealth of pornography, ranging from playlist and podcast cover images displaying explicit sex acts and/or genitals to recordings of erotic readings (human and digital storytelling) and even sounds intended to produce sexual arousal.
Both news outlets captured screenshots of offensive material (and censored such footage) and Vince reported that after contacting Spotify for comment, many of the materials they discovered were removed from the platform. -form.
“Spotify prohibits content on our platform that contains sexually explicit material. When content that violates this standard is identified, it is removed,” a Spotify spokesperson told Vice.
What is troubling is that this content, at the time the reports surfaced (July 26), was accidentally discoverable by typing a single comma or period into the search bar rather than a search using words- keys specified in the sexual domain. Vice also reported that a Spotify user contacted them and claimed their 8-year-old daughter had stumbled upon pornographic images after accidentally typing a period in the search bar.
“I don’t know what I expected, but it definitely wasn’t hardcore porn,” the relative said.
Loudwire has independently verified the existence of hardcore pornographic images and overtly sexually explicit recordings on Spotify. We choose not to display censored images of this highly graphic content, or link to where this content is discoverable.
