Spotify showing explicit videos in search results… for some users

This year’s Spotify Wrapped wasn’t just about your favorite music or artists. It became the talk of the town due to the new AI podcast that discusses your music interest. While it seemed Spotify would transition smoothly to the New Year, moderation system failure resulting in users seeing explicit videos on the platform has now sparked controversy.

Spotify’s search results return explicit videos for some users

It all started when a Reddit user (@Milk_Steak_Jabroni) posted a screenshot of Spotify’s search results. From what it appears, the search results included an explicit video when the user searched for rapper M.I.A. The Verge today reported that the exact video shown in the screenshot didn’t appear in their Spotify search results.

However, they still came across multiple explicit videos when scrolling through the results in the “Videos” tab. That’s not all, an account posing as a podcast account has also been uploading explicit videos on Spotify with some weird alphanumeric titles.

Although explicit videos appear to be a problem, audio isn’t safe either. The report also highlights the presence of erotic audio on the platform. A quick scroll on Reddit can show enough evidence of explicit audio and videos popping up for multiple users on Spotify.

The platform has removed multiple videos

Once the news spread like wildfire, Spotify’s spokesperson confirmed that such videos were removed due to violations of its policies. It’s worth noting that Spotify’s content moderation policy strictly prohibits explicit materials. So, who is to blame? It seems Spotify’s moderation system has some loopholes which is why it failed to spot and block explicit material on the platform.

In the past, YouTube also found itself in a similar controversy when multiple users reported seeing NSFW ads on the platform. Although YouTube has been strengthening its moderation system, recent reports hint that the issue hasn’t been completely resolved. Therefore, it’ll be interesting to see how Spotify tackles this frustrating issue.