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Following reports from CNN and other news outlets, Senator Maggie Hassan is demanding information about how Spotify is handling phony podcasts promoting potentially illegal online pharmacies. Spotify said last week that it had removed dozens of podcasts identified by CNN that blatantly promoted the online pharmacies purportedly selling drugs such as Adderall and Oxycontin, in some cases without a prescription. Business Insider also reported that it had flagged 200 podcasts that Spotify subsequently removed. The fake podcasts — which had showed up among the top suggestions in searches for drug names — violated Spotify’s rules and threatened to direct users to spammy and potentially illegal websites. US law prohibits buying controlled substances online without a prescription. Parents, experts and lawmakers have urged tech giants to do more to prevent the sale of counterfeit or illicit drugs to young people through their platforms, after multiple teens have died of overdoses from pills bought online. Now Hassan, a New Hampshire Democrat and the ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, wants answers about how these fake podcasts proliferated on Spotify and what the company is doing to stop it from happening again In a letter sent Thursday, Hassan urged Spotify CEO Daniel Ek to “take action to prevent fake podcasts that facilitate the illicit sale of drugs.” “Far too many parents have experienced the unimaginable pain of losing their child to an accidental overdose,” Hassan told CNN in an exclusive statement ahead of the letter’s release. “Spotify has a responsibility to significantly ramp up its efforts to stop criminals from using the platform to facilitate deadly drug sales to anyone, especially teens.” The letter asks Spotify to provide details about the content it has taken down; how many users interacted with the drug sales podcasts before they were removed; whether the company earned any revenue from the podcasts; and whether Spotify works with law enforcement when it discovers illegal content. It also asks what moderation tools and practices the company has implemented to identify drug-related content and whether it will be making any updates considering the recent reports. Hassan has asked Spotify to respond by June 12. In a statement to CNN last week, a Spotify spokesperson said: “We are constantly working to detect and remove violating content across our service.” In response to Hassan’s letter, the company reiterated that statement, and a spokesperson added that such content also exists on other platforms.
