Over 200 illicit shows removed.
Photo credit: Haithem Ferdi on Unsplash
Spotify is facing scrutiny after removing over 200 fake podcasts that appeared to promote the sale of opioids and other prescription drugs, content that likely violated both company policies and federal regulations.
The issue came to light following a Business Insider report on Thursday detailing Spotify’s takedown of the illicit content. A day later, CNN revealed that dozens more of these fake podcasts remained accessible, raising concerns about the platform’s content moderation systems.
Some podcast titles included names like ‘My Adderall Store’ and ‘Xtrapharma.com’, with episodes labeled ‘Order Codeine Online Safe Pharmacy Louisiana’ and ‘Order Xanax 2 mg Online Big Deal On Christmas Season’. Despite the obvious red flags, many of these shows evaded the platform’s detection tools and remained online for months.
The investigation also found that many episodes were either extremely short, sometimes under 10 seconds, or featured no audio at all. Some used synthetic voices generated by text-to-speech tools, a method increasingly accessible through modern AI technologies.
While Spotify confirmed that it had removed the flagged shows for violating policies around illegal or spam content, concerns remain about the platform’s ability—or willingness—to fully address the problem.
More information is expected as the company continues its internal investigation.
