Tag: harmful content

Thorn Joins the Spotify Safety Advisory Council

May 5, 2023

At Spotify, we’ve had long-standing policies against content that promotes, solicits, or facilitates harm, including child sexual abuse or exploitation. It is with that commitment in mind that we are announcing the addition of Thorn to our Safety Advisory Council. Thorn is a nonprofit dedicated to building technology to defend children from sexual abuse and is a longstanding safety partner to Spotify.

Since 2020, Spotify has integrated Thorn’s feedback to better understand the child safety space and identify emerging trends, leveraging their product Safer, which is designed to detect, identify, and report child sexual abuse material (CSAM) at scale. In addition, Thorn provided key insights into emerging abuse trends in the child safety space that have helped shape our approach to policy enforcement.

“We are thrilled to join the Spotify Safety Advisory Council and continue our work with Spotify to defend children from sexual abuse,” says John Starr, Vice President of Business Operations and Strategic Impact at Thorn. “Spotify’s commitment to child safety is evident in their long-standing policies, strong emphasis on continuous improvement, and partnerships with organizations like Thorn. We look forward to collaborating with the other council members to further advance these efforts.”

The Safety Advisory Council’s mission is to help Spotify evolve its policies and products to help ensure a safe experience, while making sure we respect creator expression. Council members do not make enforcement decisions. During this first year, the SSAC continued to support us in an advisory capacity and provided ongoing feedback in key issue areas. 

“This partnership is another example of Spotify’s investment in advancing our child safety efforts, which have included hiring child safety experts who have experience working at organizations like NCMEC and our membership as a WeProtect Alliance partner, says Sarah Hoyle, Head of Trust and Safety at Spotify.

Looking ahead, we are excited to partner with Thorn and the rest of the council members to continue evolving our approach to keeping children safe on our platform, tackle emerging issues related to the responsible management of AI-generated content, and ensure we’re creating a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone who uses Spotify.

Spotify Continues to Ramp Up Platform Safety Efforts with Acquisition of Kinzen

October 5, 2022

Spotify and Kinzen logos

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Today, Spotify is excited to share that we have acquired Dublin, Ireland-based Kinzen, a global leader in protecting online communities from harmful content. Kinzen’s advanced technology and deep expertise will help us more effectively deliver a safe, enjoyable experience on our platform around the world. 

Spotify’s current partnership with Kinzen, which began in 2020, has been critical to enhancing our approach to platform safety. The company’s unique technology is particularly suited for podcasting and audio formats, making its value to Spotify clear and unmatched. The technology the Kinzen team brings to Spotify combines machine learning and human expertise—backed by analysis from leading local academics and journalists—to analyze potential harmful content and hate speech in multiple languages and countries. 

“We’ve long had an impactful and collaborative partnership with Kinzen and its exceptional team. Now, working together as one, we’ll be able to even further improve our ability to detect and address harmful content, and importantly, in a way that better considers local context,” said Dustee Jenkins, Spotify’s Global Head of Public Affairs. “This investment expands Spotify’s approach to platform safety, and underscores how seriously we take our commitment to creating a safe and enjoyable experience for creators and users.”

Given the complexity of analyzing audio content in hundreds of languages and dialects, and the challenges in effectively evaluating the nuance and intent of that content, the acquisition of Kinzen will help Spotify better understand the abuse landscape and identify emerging threats on the platform.

“The combination of tools and expert insights is Kinzen’s unique strength that we see as essential to identifying emerging abuse trends in markets and moderating potentially dangerous content at scale,” said Sarah Hoyle, Spotify’s Head of Trust and Safety. “This expansion of our team, combined with the launch of our Safety Advisory Council, demonstrates the proactive approach we’re taking in this important space.”