{"id":2263786,"date":"2024-06-10T08:55:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T12:55:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spotify-gears-up-to-silence-political-opponents-under-guise-of-election-integrity\/"},"modified":"2024-06-10T08:55:31","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T12:55:31","slug":"spotify-gears-up-to-silence-political-opponents-under-guise-of-election-integrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/spotify-gears-up-to-silence-political-opponents-under-guise-of-election-integrity\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotify Prepares to Mute Political Rivals Citing &#8216;Election Integrity"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fspotify-gears-up-to-silence-political-opponents-under-guise-of-election-integrity%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2263786&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Spotify, \u2062a leading\u2063 content streaming platform, has recently taken a bigger role in managing election information, particularly ahead of the U.S. presidential election. \u2063The company aims to act against what it considers \u200ddisinformation through a comprehensive censoring plan. This approach resembles \u200dthe tactics used by Big\u2063 Tech\u200d during \u200dthe 2020 election, where content described as disinformation or \u200bmisinformation was heavily regulated, \u2062often affecting conservative viewpoints.<\/p>\n<p>Spotify&#8217;s Chief \u2063Public Affairs Officer, Dustee Jenkins, emphasized \u2063the importance of safeguarding the platform during \u2063significant global events like\u200d elections, tailoring\u200b their efforts to specific regional needs. \u200cThe company uses ongoing\u200c risk assessments and various indicators to inform\u2064 their policy and enforcement guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, \u2064Spotify&#8217;s \u200cacquisition of\u200d Kinzen, \u2062an Ireland-based content moderation firm, in 2022 has bolstered its capabilities to \u200dmonitor and manage content deemed \u200das harmful or \u2062misleading. Kinzen, known for its \u200cwork in detecting dangerous\u2063 misinformation, uses proprietary analytical tools to regulate content, a \u2062method that has raised concerns \u200babout transparency and\u200b accountability.<\/p>\n<p>The \u200carticle also touches on broader issues concerning the regulation of information by private tech companies, which highlights the challenges of balancing public discourse management and freedom of speech. This has stirred debates about the role of such firms as\u2064 arbiters of truth, especially \u2062in politically sensitive environments.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Spotify\u2019s platform \u201crevolutionized\u201d content streaming, as Spotify likes to remind us.\u201cWe are the world\u2019s most popular streaming subscription service with more than 615 million users,\u201d the media service provider <a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.spotify.com\/company-info\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">boasts<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Now Sweden-based Spotify is positioning itself as a gatekeeper of election information, rolling out a massive censoring machine targeting what the streaming giant deems as \u201cdisinformation\u201d \u2014 just in time for a U.S. presidential election that has big-monied leftists uniting to keep former President Donald Trump from returning to the White House.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-2112891573\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-98b1d366a93a0ef891bc239919780cc8 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-98b1d366a93a0ef891bc239919780cc8\"><\/div>\n<p>Sound familiar?\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Attempts to Manipulate or Interfere\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>On May 31, Spotify announced its <a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.spotify.com\/2024-05-31\/how-spotify-is-protecting-election-integrity-in-2024\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">plan<\/a>, informing the world \u201cHow Spotify is Protecting Election Integrity in 2024.\u201d The plan sounds a lot like what Big Tech \u2014\u00a0driven by Constitution-devouring federal agencies \u2014 did in the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/06\/missouri-v-biden-proves-corporate-media-lied-about-big-techs-censorship-crusade-against-conservatives\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">2020 election<\/a>. Social networks and internet providers shut down content claimed to contain disinformation, misinformation, and the Orwellian-sounding <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/event\/118th-congress\/house-event\/115901\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cmalinformation,\u201d<\/a> suppressing information from primarily conservatives criticizing and, in many cases, debunking official information. As <a href=\"https:\/\/judiciary.house.gov\/sites\/evo-subsites\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/files\/evo-media-document\/cisa-staff-report6-26-23.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">we now know<\/a>, much of the censored content wasn\u2019t wrong; it was inconvenient truth to the swamp powers bent on interfering in the election.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Spotify appears to be heading down the same path.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Dustee Jenkins, Spotify\u2019s chief public affairs officer, noted the worldwide effort of the company\u2019s plan to block speech.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b9152666baa912db85fe74dc79653770 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-b9152666baa912db85fe74dc79653770\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cWith billions of people from over 50 countries heading to the polls to cast their vote, 2024 is shaping up to be the largest election year in history. Safeguarding our platform during critically important global events is a top priority for our teams, and we\u2019ve spent years developing and refining our approach,\u201d Jenkins says. \u201cKnowing that election safety is top of mind for many of our creators and users, we wanted to provide further insights into our approach at Spotify.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That approach includes Platform Rules prohibiting content that \u201cattempts to manipulate or interfere with election-related processes.\u201d The rules of engagement, of course, vary from country to country, so Jenkins says Spotify won\u2019t be offering a one-size-fits-all content suppression effort. Teams will conduct individual risk assessments considering various \u201cindicators,\u201d including the service\u2019s \u201cavailability and specific product offerings in a country, historical precedents for online and offline harm during voting periods, and emerging geopolitical factors that may increase on-platform risks.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The key is constant monitoring.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe monitor these factors on an ongoing basis and use our learnings to inform policy and enforcement guidelines, customize in-product interventions, and determine where we may benefit from additional resourcing and\/or third-party inputs,\u201d Jenkins tells us.\u00a0<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-609334279c3a8ad02eb24024d2040018 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-609334279c3a8ad02eb24024d2040018\"><\/div>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Grossly Overstepped its Bounds\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Spotify brought a third-party into its corporate fold in 2022 when it acquired <a href=\"https:\/\/newsroom.spotify.com\/2022-10-05\/spotify-continues-to-ramp-up-platform-safety-efforts-with-acquisition-of-kinzen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Kinzen<\/a>, an Ireland-based content moderation company. The acquisition followed a partnership between the two tech entities that began in 2020. Founded three years before, Kinzen sees itself as a public protector from \u201cdangerous misinformation, hateful content, violent content, violent extremism and dangerous organisations,\u201d according to its website. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>How does Kinzen determine just what is \u201cdangerous misinformation\u201d? Proprietary analytical tools.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sound familiar?\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn essence, using their networks and analytical tools, Kinzen would be an outsourced third party for the state and tech platforms to thin the herd on anything they deem unacceptable online,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theburkean.ie\/articles\/2021\/11\/13\/kinzens-caper-how-did-an-anti-hate-speech-firm-siphon-off-%D1%94108k-in-state-funding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Burkean<\/a>, an online publication \u201cfounded and run by university students in Ireland that seeks to promote free speech and fresh ideas,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theburkean.ie\/articles\/2021\/11\/13\/kinzens-caper-how-did-an-anti-hate-speech-firm-siphon-off-%D1%94108k-in-state-funding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Learning from Twitter?<\/h2>\n<p>Kinzen is the \u201clove child\u201d of former RT\u00c9 (Irish public broadcaster) and Twitter executive Mark Little \u201cand a coterie of politically well connected journalists,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theburkean.ie\/articles\/2021\/11\/13\/kinzens-caper-how-did-an-anti-hate-speech-firm-siphon-off-%D1%94108k-in-state-funding\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reports<\/a> the Burkean.\u00a0Little briefly served as director of Twitter\u2019s Ireland operations until 2016, when he left amid a company shakeup. He notes on his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.threads.net\/@marklittlenews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Meta Threads<\/a> account that he \u201cWorked @Twitter in better days. Journalist in olden days.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Seems he learned a thing or two from his days at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/fbi-colluded-twitter-suppress-free-speech-where-outrage-opinion-1768801\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">speech-squashing Twitter<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>On said Meta Threads account, Little recently reposted a Washington Post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2024\/06\/06\/twitter-jan-6-deplatforming-misinfo-nature-study\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> headlined, \u201cAfter Jan. 6, Twitter banned 70,000 right-wing accounts. Lies Plummeted.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe study \u2026 suggests that if social media companies want to reduce misinformation, banning habitual spreaders may be more effective than trying to suppress individual posts,\u201d reports the big government-backing Post, quoted by the former Twitter exec.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Little also quotes from the study, published in the journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-024-01587-3#:~:text=In%20today's%20polarized%20political%20climate,valid%2C%20warranted%20and%20urgently%20required.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Nature<\/em><\/a>. Apparently, he sees himself as a freedom fighter in his speech-suppression work. \u201cIn today\u2019s polarized political climate, researchers who combat mistruths have come under attack and been labelled as unelected arbiters of truth. But the fight against misinformation is valid, warranted and urgently required,\u201d the study asserts.<\/p>\n<p>Coincidentally, the journal <em>Nature<\/em> on March 17, 2020, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.heritage.org\/public-health\/commentary\/covid-19-origins-experts-consulted-fauci-suddenly-changed-their-minds\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published a paper<\/a> that concluded that \u201cSARS-CoV-2 [the virus that causes COVID-19] is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus.\u201d The conclusion was endorsed by Anthony Fauci, then-director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, as well as then-National Institutes for Health Director Francis Collins, and trumpeted by the accomplice media even though top virologists were dubious. Fauci and his band of complicit scientists were aware of gain-of-function experiments on the virus in labs in Wuhan, China.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is clear that the authors of the now infamous \u2026 paper \u2014 published by <em>Nature Medicine<\/em> in 2020 \u2014 had significant conflicts of interest and that the paper was written to vilify and discredit discussion about the lab leak theory,\u201d the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic <a href=\"https:\/\/oversight.house.gov\/release\/hearing-wrap-up-americans-witnessed-a-breakdown-of-scientific-debate-during-covid-19\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The folks at <em>Nature<\/em> hasten to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/d41586-024-01657-6#ref-CR1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">note<\/a> that the publication is \u201ceditorially independent of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nm\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Nature Medicine<\/em><\/a>, and <em>Nature<\/em>\u2019s news team is independent of its journals team,\u201d although both publications are owned by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/nature-portfolio\/about\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">same company<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Grossly Overstepped Its Bounds\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Kinzen took a fair amount of heat for helping Ireland\u2019s Department of Health detect \u201cdisinformation\u201d about Covid. It also took plenty of Euros for the short-lived effort. Kinzen eventually lost its contract with the government agency amid scrutiny over the services it provided. As investigative news outlet Gript <a href=\"https:\/\/gript.ie\/department-of-health-no-longer-working-with-kinzen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> in October 2021, Minister of Health Stephen Donnolly confirmed the anti-disinformation firm had been sacked and that the \u201cpartnership with Kinzen\u201d was procured \u201coutside of normal tendering processing\u201d because of the \u201cextreme urgency\u201d of the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhilst we do not know why the partnership ended, we do know it ended on Friday the 8th of October, four days after Gript <a href=\"https:\/\/gript.ie\/exclusive-the-hse-has-gone-far-beyond-reporting-misinformation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">published a story<\/a> showing that the [Health and Safety Executive] misinformation programme, which used data provided by Kinzen, had grossly overstepped its bounds, either deliberately or negligently,\u201d the news outlet reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The article goes on to note the problems that companies like Kinzen present.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese companies are being given increasing amounts of influence over public discourse, but they have no obligation to explain to the public what they are doing or to act in a transparent manner, as can be seen in Kinzen\u2019s repeated failures to answer any questions we have asked them about their work,\u201d wrote Gary Kavanagh, a reporter for the publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s a lot of that going around.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Federalist, The Daily Wire, and the state of Texas are plaintiffs in a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/06\/state-of-texas-joins-the-federalist-daily-wire-in-suing-the-federal-censorship-industrial-complex\/\">lawsuit<\/a> alleging that the U.S. State Department is violating the U.S. Constitution through its funding of technology that silences Americans who question government claims. My Federalist colleague Joy Pullmann <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/06\/state-of-texas-joins-the-federalist-daily-wire-in-suing-the-federal-censorship-industrial-complex\/\">reports<\/a>:\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Through grants and product development assistance to private entities including the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/03\/13\/newsguard-claims-not-to-be-government-funded-but-a-750k-grant-suggests-otherwise\/\">and NewsGuard<\/a>, the lawsuit alleges, the State Department \u201cis actively intervening in the news-media market to render disfavored press outlets unprofitable by funding the infrastructure, development, and marketing and promotion of censorship technology and private censorship enterprises to covertly suppress speech of a segment of the American press.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The lawsuit aims to stop the government from using its counterterrorism centers in \u201cone of the most audacious, manipulative, secretive, and gravest abuses of power and infringements of First Amendment rights by the federal government in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The song remains the same at Spotify, which plans to use its Kinzen arm to \u201creduce risk.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If the past is any indicator, the risk is coming from the so-called defenders against \u201cdisinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ee0ae218274eff4da01ccc71aa010c1c fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-ee0ae218274eff4da01ccc71aa010c1c\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spotify, often hailed as a revolutionary streaming platform, boasts over 615 million users worldwide. Now, the Sweden-based company is expanding its role to oversee election information, implementing extensive censorship measures to filter content it considers inappropriate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":656,"featured_media":2263787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Spotify-scaled.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2263786","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Spotify-scaled.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2263786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2263786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2263787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2263786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2263786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2263786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}