Note: Updated 12/6/19 with comment from Google.

A report from Big If True found about 40 podcasts promoting hate speech across 13 audio platforms. Here are the platforms’ policies on racist content.

Six already prohibit racist content.

YouTube says that it has “always had policies that prohibited hate speech” and the platform removes “content promoting violence or hatred against individuals or groups” based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and other attributes.

Luminary: “We strive to make Luminary a safe and inclusive service. We may monitor and remove content which we determine, in our sole discretion: is obscene, indecent, pornographic, abusive, offensive, discriminatory, harassing, threatening, or incites violence or hatred against any race, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age, veteran status, or any other characteristic.”

iHeartRadio: Those who use services of iHeartMedia, which owns iHeartRadio, can’t “deliver, or provide links to, any postings containing material that harasses, victimizes, degrades, or intimidates an individual or group of individuals on the basis of religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, age, or disability.”

Castbox: The platform won’t post contributions that “are defamatory, damaging, disruptive, unlawful, inappropriate, offensive, inaccurate, pornographic, vulgar, indecent, profane, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, threatening, excessively violent, harassing or otherwise objectionable” or that “incite, encourage or threaten immediate physical harm against another, including but not limited to, contributions that promote racism, bigotry, sexism, religious intolerance or harm against any group or individual.”

Spreaker: Users aren’t allowed to “publish any content that promotes, either directly or indirectly, hate, racism, discrimination, pornography (or) violence.”

Podbean: Users can’t submit content “that may be deemed as pornography, defamatory, libelous, obscene, harassing, threatening, incendiary, abusive, racist, offensive, deceptive or fraudulent, encouraging criminal or harmful conduct, or which otherwise violates the rights of the company or any third party (including any intellectual property rights, privacy rights, contractual or fiduciary rights).”

Three platforms have a policies that bar “offensive” content – but don’t mention how they handle racist material.

Apple Podcasts: Users can’t “post objectionable, offensive, unlawful, deceptive or harmful content.” Content related to race, ethnicity and religion aren’t mentioned in Apple Podcasts’ terms of service.

Spotify: The company’s user agreement doesn’t mention racist content but says that users can’t post “material that is offensive, abusive, defamatory, pornographic, threatening or obscene.”

Stitcher: “We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason at any time and may, but have no obligation to, remove content that we determine in our sole discretion to be unlawful, offensive, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene or otherwise objectionable or violates any party’s intellectual property or these terms of service.”

The policies for two platforms don’t explicitly bar racist or “offensive” content.

Libsyn: The company’s user agreement says, “You understand that by using the service, you may encounter material that you may deem to be offensive, indecent or objectionable, and that such content may or may not be identified as having explicit material. Nevertheless, you agree to use the service at your sole risk and Libsyn shall have no liability to you for material that may be found to be offensive, indecent or objectionable.”

Player.fm: The platform’s user agreement doesn’t mention racist content and says, “Notwithstanding our rights under these terms of use in relation to user content, we do not undertake to monitor the submission of such content to, or the publication of such content on, our website.”

Policies for two of the platforms were unavailable or difficult to locate.

Google Podcasts: Despite multiple requests, Google did not provide its terms of service for Google Podcasts. However, Google said in a statement that Google Podcasts doesn’t host content and “because we index what is available on the web, that can include content and ideas that may be controversial.” Google also said: “In specific features where Google Podcasts shows content that someone hasn’t searched for – like recommendations – we have policies against showing explicit, violent and hateful content. Similar to Google Search, Google Podcasts does not remove podcasts from its index except in very rare circumstances, such as if it is ordered by law enforcement.”

ZenCast: This platform has the most strongly-worded ban on hate speech that we reviewed, but the link to its terms of service is broken. A cached version says: “Our service is a place for expression and we encourage free speech and it is fine to express unpopular points of view, but we do not tolerate hate speech. Hate speech is content that promotes or condones violence against or has the primary purpose of inciting hatred against an individual or groups on the basis of their race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, age, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or any other characteristic that is associated with systemic discrimination or marginalization. If you are questioning if you should upload something, you probably should not.”

Contact Big If True editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

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