Latest news with #fakepodcasts
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
A senator is pressing Spotify over fake podcasts that peddled opioids
Sen. Maggie Hassan is demanding answers from Spotify over fake podcasts that pushed opioids. In a letter, Hassan asked Spotify to "take action" on the phony content. Hassan's letter comes after a BI investigation found 200 podcasts on Spotify peddling opioids. A senator is demanding answers from Spotify about its handling of fake podcasts that promoted opioids and other prescription drugs. In the wake of a Business Insider investigation that found 200 phony podcasts on Spotify advertising the sale of pills, often without a prescription, Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire urged the digital music and podcast company to moderate its content better. Some of the podcasts were removed after BI previously flagged them to Spotify. "I urge you to take action to prevent fake podcasts that facilitate the illicit sale of drugs — including those that could contain fentanyl — from appearing on your platform," the two-term Democratic lawmaker said in a letter to Spotify CEO Daniel Ek. "Addressing these threats requires an all-hands-on-deck approach, and based on recent reports, Spotify has not exercised the level of diligence needed," she continued. Spotify didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this month, in response to BI's investigation, a Spotify spokesperson said: "We are constantly working to detect and remove violating content across our service." Many lawmakers across the United States have long sought to address the scourge of opioid abuse, which increasingly comes in the form of fentanyl. Fentanyl trafficking is a major issue for President Donald Trump, who has accused Mexico, Canada, and China of allowing the drug to be transported into the United States. Trump imposed tariffs on those countries in part to force them to do more to stem the flow of fentanyl. In her letter, Hassan, a former governor, spoke of the "heart-wrenching conversations" that she's had with constituents in her state who've lost family members or friends to drug overdoses. "The scale of the fentanyl crisis requires cooperation among law enforcement, online platforms, and international partners to protect our communities," she said. Hassan also asked Spotify to detail its moderation tools and policies and inquired about the number of drug-related podcasts it has had to remove. She asked whether the platform received any revenue from the removed podcasts. The lawmaker, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee, gave Spotify until June 12 to respond to her inquiries. "We are constantly working to detect and remove violating content across our service," a Spotify spokesperson said in response to BI's investigation. Read the full letter here: Read the original article on Business Insider
CNN
22-05-2025
- Business
- CNN
Senator questions Spotify about podcasts promoting the sale of prescription drugs online
Following reports from CNN and other news outlets, Senator Maggie Hassan is demanding information about how Spotify is handling phony podcasts promoting potentially illegal online pharmacies. Spotify said last week that it had removed dozens of podcasts identified by CNN that blatantly promoted the online pharmacies purportedly selling drugs such as Adderall and Oxycontin, in some cases without a prescription. Business Insider also reported that it had flagged 200 podcasts that Spotify subsequently removed. The fake podcasts — which had showed up among the top suggestions in searches for drug names — violated Spotify's rules and threatened to direct users to spammy and potentially illegal websites. US law prohibits buying controlled substances online without a prescription. Parents, experts and lawmakers have urged tech giants to do more to prevent the sale of counterfeit or illicit drugs to young people through their platforms, after multiple teens have died of overdoses from pills bought online. Now Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat and the ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, wants answers about how these fake podcasts proliferated on Spotify and what the company is doing to stop it from happening again In a letter sent Thursday, Hassan urged Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to 'take action to prevent fake podcasts that facilitate the illicit sale of drugs.' 'Far too many parents have experienced the unimaginable pain of losing their child to an accidental overdose,' Hassan told CNN in an exclusive statement ahead of the letter's release. 'Spotify has a responsibility to significantly ramp up its efforts to stop criminals from using the platform to facilitate deadly drug sales to anyone, especially teens.' The letter asks Spotify to provide details about the content it has taken down; how many users interacted with the drug sales podcasts before they were removed; whether the company earned any revenue from the podcasts; and whether Spotify works with law enforcement when it discovers illegal content. It also asks what moderation tools and practices the company has implemented to identify drug-related content and whether it will be making any updates considering the recent reports. Hassan has asked Spotify to respond by June 12. In a statement to CNN last week, a Spotify spokesperson said: 'We are constantly working to detect and remove violating content across our service.'
Digital Trends
19-05-2025
- Business
- Digital Trends
Spotify cracks down on pill-pushing podcasts
Spotify been clearing its platform of numerous fake podcasts that directed users to websites purporting to sell drugs without a prescription. The issue was brought to light in recent days by CNN and Business Insider, whose separate investigations discovered some 200 podcasts peddling prescription medicines. Recommended Videos Many of the podcasts 'were under a minute long and are less about content and more about pushing product, providing links to websites claiming to sell opioids like Tramadol and Oxycodone,' Business Insider said in its report. In its own report, CNN said: 'Podcasts with titles such as My Adderall Store — which has a link in the episode description to a site that purportedly sells Adderall, as well as potentially addictive pain medications like Oxycodone and Vicodin, among other drugs — were listed within the first 50 suggested results.' While Spotify has removed much of the offending content, CNN claimed on Friday that it was 'easily able to find dozens of these fake, drug sales podcast pages, including some that had been posted on the platform for months.' In a widely reported statement, a spokesperson for the streaming giant said: 'We are constantly working to detect and remove violating content across our service.' Some of the offending podcasts lasted only a matter of seconds and featured a computerized voice advertising medication that could apparently be purchased in a few clicks. In its community guidelines for creators, Spotify says that while its mission 'is to democratize audio' and to 'be a platform that enables a diverse range of voices and perspectives to share their stories with the world … that doesn't mean anything goes on our platform.' On another page titled 'Spotify Platform Rules,' it lists examples of material that's banned from the streaming service, including 'content that illicitly promotes the sale of regulated or illegal goods' such as drugs. Digital Trends has reached out to Spotify for an update on its effort to purge its platform of the prohibited podcasts and we will update this article when we hear back.
