Misinformation in podcast apps

In one of the last episodes of the podcast About love interviews ADcolumnist Debby Gerritsen actor and writer Lykele Muus about, the name says it all, love. The title of the episode, ‘I played a dick, apparently that was attractive’, is a quote from Muus about the attention he received after his performance in the NPO series Dertigers. But if you look up the episode in Apple’s podcast app, you’ll see a slightly different title: ‘I played a l*l, apparently that was attractive’.

It’s no secret that Apple uses this automated cleaning, it’s in Apple’s Podcast Content Guidelines. Roos van der Voort, creator of Kut Café (in Apple Podcasts K*t Café) is therefore not surprised. “I think it’s amazing that the podcast is still there. You are held to the American standard.”

Anyone who publishes a podcast would like it to be found in as many podcast apps as possible, says Nico Oud, founder of podcast company SpringCast. “But to get into those apps you have to meet their conditions. Apple, Spotify and Google all have their own rules.” And those are exactly the three platforms on which you at least want to be present as a maker. “We often get questions about it from customers: what is allowed and what is not allowed?”

Dangerous Consequences

The guidelines of the three major platforms can be consulted online. Like this writes Google that hateful, harassing and deceptive content is not allowed. apple writes in the guidelines that certain content is not “suitable for distribution via Apple Podcasts”, such as content that could lead to “dangerous or harmful consequences”. Spotify bans including content that is “offensive, pornographic, or threatening.” All three platforms reserve the right to remove podcast (episodes).

But how do the platforms check whether creators are following the rules? And how often are podcasts rejected or removed? Oud thinks the time it takes to upload an episode betrays or checks platforms. “You often have to indicate whether the content is explicit, and then it always takes a little longer before that episode is online. I suspect they will have someone listen to it to approve it.”

Listening to all the podcasts that are offered would be a very time-consuming task. Some form of automation seems inevitable. Apple Podcasts already does that with titles and descriptions, as witnessed by the stars. Google is in the process of transcribing podcasts automatically. But not to make it easier to test content against the guidelines, says Rachid Fingere, Google spokesperson.

“We assume that podcasters follow our guidelines, but we don’t check that,” says Finge. “As a listener, you can send a response in the app and our teams will get to work on it.” In the case of complaints, a human ear is therefore involved and an episode may be removed. Google does not disclose how many episodes it concerns.

And what about the podcast of rapper and conspiracy theorist Lange Frans? Google includes both YouTube and Google Podcasts. But you can listen to the episode in which Lange Frans speculates with kindred spirit Janet Ossebaard about committing an attack on Mark Rutte on Google Podcasts, but not on YouTube. While the guidelines do not differ greatly from each other.

Finge: “There is a big difference between YouTube and Google Podcasts for us. YouTube is our platform, then you can say that we have a responsibility to keep that platform clean. Google Podcasts is more like our search engine. It’s a reflection of what’s available on the internet, and we hardly interfere with that, except when it comes to illegal content.”

For Spotify, the speculations of rapper Lange Frans went too far, his episode with Ossebaard has been removed. The rapper himself was not aware of the removals. “A bit of censorship!”, he emails to NRC. You can still listen to the episodes via Apple Podcasts. Neither Spotify nor Apple responded to questions about the verification of the guidelines and how often podcast (episodes) are removed. After a research of The New York Times On the spread of misinformation through podcasts, Spotify responded that it will remove podcast episodes in 2021 due to misinformation about Covid-19. Spotify did not announce which episodes.

The New York Times research also showed that the lack of clarity about moderation has made podcasts an interesting medium for corona and vaccine skeptics. While other internet platforms are becoming stricter and announcing measures to combat the spread of medical misinformation and, for example, add links to government websites, the major podcast platforms remain silent. It is clear that there is some control, but how it is done, and how strict it is, remains unclear.

It is also difficult to determine how much Dutch misinformation is spread via podcasts. A quick search of podcast titles and descriptions yields a few well-known names, such as Viruswaarheid frontman Willem Engel. This summer, in an episode of Kinnebak Podcast, he was allowed to talk about the alleged “massive corruption around PCR tests and vaccine manufacturers”. The popular conspiracy theorist and former TV presenter Robert Jensen also publishes his De Jensen Show as a podcast. On December 15, he published another episode titled “Omicronzin Madness.”