Is Troy Carter Leaving Spotify Over New Hate Content Policy?

Carter reportedly pushed back against Spotify’s effort to “determine values” and argued for a more measured and less public approach.

This week Spotify instituted the new policy and internal content monitoring tool, Spotify AudioWatch. The effort will draw on alerts from groups fighting hate content, including The Southern Poverty Law Center, The Anti-Defamation League, Color Of Change, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), GLAAD, Muslim Advocates, and the International Network Against Cyber Hate.

“We do not tolerate hate content on Spotify – content that expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability,” the company said in a statement.

A Spotify representative “emphatically denied” to Variety that Carter is leaving the company; and he apparently was at his desk yesterday. But rumors that Carter is exiting persist; and the difficulties of fairly policing morality have just begun to surface for Spotify.