Spotify Removes Tens of Thousands of Fake Podcasts Promoting Illegal Pharmacies

Streaming giant Spotify (Spotify) has removed tens of thousands of fictional podcasts from its platform, which were used to promote illegal online pharmacies, according to a CNN report. Spotify’s move followed an investigation launched by U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan in May last year. This week, the investigation report was published, raising questions about Spotify’s ability to detect and remove potentially harmful content. Hassan accused the company of needing to act faster. "Criminals are using AI-based scams and other dangerous actors at a faster pace and in greater volumes, so online platforms need to move faster to protect users," Hassan said in a statement.

Spotify offers free tools to anyone interested in creating, distributing and even monetizing podcasts. However, the platform’s rules prohibit "content that promotes the sale of illegal products," including drugs.

In response, Spotify said the fictional podcasts were part of a "spam attack" intended to increase the visibility of those online pharmacies in search engines. "Bad actors trying to abuse our platform will always attempt to evade or fool our detection," the company’s spokesperson Laura Batey said. "As soon as we become aware of these attempts, we act quickly to remove the content and update our detection systems accordingly."

Between May of last year, when the case was exposed, and November, Spotify removed about 3,500 podcast accounts and around 57,000 individual episodes that promoted the sale of prescription drugs such as Adderall and OxyContin, sometimes without a doctor’s prescription. That compares with fewer than 100 accounts removed a year earlier. According to the company, 94% of the fictional podcasts were never downloaded for listening.