Spotify Technology, an audio-streaming business, said on Wednesday that it had acquired Kinzen, a company that has helped it identify harmful content on the platform.
After a backlash earlier this year over "The Joe Rogan Experience," the acquisition is part of Spotify''s efforts to reduce harmful content on its service. In the wake of the accusations, the podcaster was accused of disseminating COVID-19.
"Kinzen provides a whole spectrum of resources and knowledge to help us better understand our platform''s content and emerging abuse trends," says Spotify''s head of trust and safety.
The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Spotify announced that it would be more transparent in determining what is acceptable and unacceptable content earlier this year. In January, it published its platform standards for the first time. In June, it formed a safety advisory committee to provide input on harmful content.
Kinzen will provide early warnings about market challenges, facilitating Spotify''s content to be moderated in more languages.
In addition, Spotify has announced the opening of a new audiobooks service in the United States. Under the new initiative, the streaming service will now include over 3,00,000 titles. In the United States, users will now be able to find audiobooks as a separate area on Spotify, alongside music and podcasts in their library, in search, and in their curated recommendations on the Spotify home page.
In a blog post, the Swedish-based company announced that users may discover audiobooks in the Spotify app and will be redirected to them on the company''s website. After purchasing the audiobook, the user''s library will remain accessible.
Thomson Reuters 2022