One of the top music streaming services, Spotify, has been attempting to position itself as a top platform for podcasts as well. To date, the firm has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in this effort.
As part of the most recent development, Spotify has revealed that it would pay an unknown sum to acquire Kinzen, a Dublin-based start-up that provides content moderation services. The entire Kinzen staff, including the company’s management, will now work for Spotify.
Since 2020, Spotify has collaborated with Kinzen, and the music streaming service has now bought the start-up. By combining machine learning and human knowledge, the technology will be used to better filter podcasts and other audio content.
In 2017, Áine Kerr, Mark Little, and Paul Watson established Kinzen with the goal of guarding against damaging disinformation and material in public discourse. It provides platforms with planning tools by providing early alerts about developing narratives and trends that might pose a danger of disinformation.
The investigation covers a wide range of topics, including harmful disinformation in several markets and languages, as well as medical misinformation, antisemitism, racist material, climate misinformation, and violent extremism.
According to Spotify, it is particularly significant since it can scan information in hundreds of languages and dialects, enabling the firm to identify new risks across markets.
After facing criticism over “The Joe Rogan Experience,” where he was accused of promoting false information about COVID-19, earlier this year, it appears that the acquisition is a part of the company’s efforts to deal with dangerous content on its site.
