Spotify staff revolt and demand removal of Andrew Tate ‘misogyny course’ podcast

Spotify made the wise decision to remove one of Andrew Tate’s podcasts from the platform after numerous complaints. The controversial figure’s “classes” taught men how to manipulate and control women, prompting outrage from listeners and even Spotify staff.

Tate’s podcast, titled “Pimping Hoes,” advertised itself as a “degree course,” although it’s difficult to understand why anyone would waste their time un-ironically listening to anything Andrew Tate has to say. The course was apparently removed from Spotify as it was found to be breaching the company’s policy — it is one of several podcasts to be removed this week, according to an article from The Guardian.

What were people saying about Tate’s podcast?

Spotify employees were reportedly quite upset about Tate’s content being made available on the platform, and had previously complained about it. “Pretty vile that we’re hosting Andrew Tate’s content,” one individual reportedly wrote in an internal message obtained by 404 Media.

Employees weren’t the only ones unhappy about the controversial manosphere grifter’s content being available to stream on Spotify. A comment on the podcast from one user read, before it was removed, “These courses actively teach men how to manipulate, control and profit from the exploitation of women.” The user pointed out that this was in violation of Spotify’s rules for content on its platform. The stuff discussed in Tate’s “classes” is honestly pretty vile.

An online petition was even started to have the foul podcast taken down, and, by the time Tate’s class in misogyny and manipulation was finally dropped, the petition had reached 92,000 signatures.

Public backlash was not behind Spotify’s removal of the podcast

Despite all the outrage from outside and within Spotify’s offices, the actual reason for Tate’s podcast being removed was due to a breach in the rules. Apparently, the music streaming service does not ban content from creators based on their behavior in the outside world, but it does ban content that makes “dehumanizing” statements about others. 

A spokesperson for Spotify specified that “The content in question was removed because it violated our policies, not because of employee discussion.” But if that’s the case you’d think it would have been removed sooner, since the podcast is literally called “Pimping Hoes” and it’s from known misogynist Andrew Tate. The company probably should have stopped this from ever being allowed on the platform in the first place.

Should Andrew Tate even have a platform?

Unfortunately, a lot of Tate content remains available to listen to on Spotify (and elsewhere). A lot of it contains questionable content that revolves around manipulating women. This is all coming from a man who is currently under investigation by Romanian authorities and is facing charges of rape and human trafficking. He was only recently allowed to leave the country after the U.S. intervened. He is also under investigation by U.K. authorities for similar allegations. At base, popular and far-reaching entities like Spotify should not be giving someone like this a platform to spread his toxic beliefs.