Spotify acquires AI start-up to ramp up its moderation efforts

Spotify has removed 19,000 playlists, 12,000 podcasts, 160 songs and nearly 20 albums that violated its policies since the beginning of the year. — Photography Ignatiev/Getty Images/AFP Relaxnews

Combating hateful content is one of Spotify's top priorities. But it's not always easy to identify and moderate it. To ramp up its efforts, the Swedish music streaming giant has decided to acquire the start-up Kinzen to help with this arduous task.

Spotify says that it started working with Kinzen in 2020. As such, its acquisition, for an undisclosed sum, is a continuation of the moderation work carried out by the two companies. “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, in a statement.