Please sign our petition against extreme anti-Israel content on Spotify
“We, the undersigned call for Spotify to take rigorous measures against the extremist and antisemitic content it currently hosts. We are greatly concerned that it is currently possible to upload music and podcasts which incite hatred and violence against Jews and Israelis, as well as promoting dangerous disinformation such as common antisemitic tropes.
We believe that Spotify has a responsibility to prevent dangerous content from appearing on its platform. While it is reassuring to see that its rules do ban materials which “promote violence, incite hatred, harass or engage in any other behaviour that may place people at risk of serious physical harm or death”, they must be upheld and enforced.
British Jews are experiencing unacceptably high and alarmingly rapidly increasing levels of antisemitism. Research from the Community Security Trust shows a shocking 34% increase in reported anti-Jewish hate incidents from 2020, while the year on year increase in violent attacks was 76%. This is thought to have been driven by an escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and in May 2021, when the violence peaked, the CST recorded its highest ever monthly total of 661 antisemitic incidents. June saw the fifth highest with 210 incidents. According to the CST, more than a third of these violent incidents had some link to conflict in the Middle East, or demonstrated anti-Zionist motivation alongside antisemitism.
Antisemitism in the UK has been at intolerable levels for far longer than should ever have been the case. Companies such as Spotify have a responsibility to prevent their platforms from being used to spread hate. We hope this will be taken seriously, and trust Spotify will make the correct decision.”