Porn tops podcast charts but Spotify ends the party

Just a heads up, if you buy something through our links, we may get a small share of the sale. It’s one of the ways we keep the lights on here. Click here for more.

Spotify is facing a problem with explicit adult content appearing in its podcast section. 

Podcasts are available on almost every device and have expanded into video formats from just audio. 

This has made it easier for content that isn’t truly a podcast to be labeled as one, leading to the rise of inappropriate material on the platform.

Recently, users have noticed that pornographic and sexually explicit content has been appearing in Spotify’s podcast charts. 

Spotify has a new explicit content issue: porncast

A report from Bloomberg revealed that many of these explicit videos are reuploads from adult sites like Pornhub. 

This issue became more noticeable after Spotify started allowing video podcasts, even though the company officially bans sexually explicit material. 

In addition to video, there has also been an increase in explicit audio recordings, which, while closer to traditional podcast content, still violate Spotify’s policies.

The challenge is that Spotify doesn’t always remove this content quickly. 

Some creators have found ways to avoid detection by deliberately keeping their content low-rated so that it doesn’t appear at the top of Spotify’s podcast rankings. 

This makes it harder for moderators to spot and take action against them.

Folks over at AndroidPolice suggest one of the reasons this issue has grown could be that Spotify’s recommendation algorithms may be unintentionally promoting explicit content. 

As more users interact with these adult videos and recordings, the system may suggest them to an even larger audience.

The company reportedly offers payment incentives for video content, which might be motivating some creators to upload inappropriate material in hopes of earning money. 

Spotify says that it has been cracking down on explicit pornographic content that was appearing on podcasts and climbing to the top of user feeds. (via: Gizmodo)

The company insists that its new monetization program for creators did not pay any of these accounts.

Thoughts on this move from Spotify? Have you used Spotify to listen to such podcasts? We want to hear from you below in the comments, or via our Twitter or Facebook.