Women’s Group Responds to Spotify’s Decision to Reverse “Hateful Conduct” Policy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, June 1, 2018
CONTACT: Yasmina Dardari | yasmina@unbendablemedia.com | (407) 922-8149

 Women’s Group Responds to Spotify’s Decision to Reverse “Hateful Conduct” Policy

UltraViolet Says the Decision Promotes Abusers of Women on the Platform

Earlier today, Spotify announced a reversal to their “Hateful Conduct” policy, explaining that they will no longer remove musicians with histories of sexual and physical abuse—such as R Kelly and XXXTentacion—from their promoted playlists.

In response Shaunna Thomas, Co-Founder of UltraViolet, a national women’s advocacy organization, released the following statement:

“Two weeks ago, Spotify declared that, ‘we want our editorial decisions—what we choose to program—to reflect our values.’ Now, we know exactly what those values are: profits over people, and music industry bigwigs over survivors of abuse.

“When music platforms promote abusers, they allow those abusers to reap in profits, lining their pockets in royalties and expanding their fan bases. This normalizes violence against women.  Spotify’s values are now clear for all to see: Abusers take priority over survivors of their crimes. We will not forget their decision.”

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UltraViolet is an online community of over 1,000,000 women and men who want to take collective action to expose and fight sexism in the public sector, private sector and the media. Find out more at weareultraviolet.org.