GLAAD raised the alarm while Apple Music remains unchanged amid this hate speech controversy.
Spotify has removed offensive imagery associated with a controversial song by Christian rapper Tyson James and his 11-year-old son Toby James, following a complaint by GLAAD.
However, the song “Still 2 Genders,” criticized for its transphobic lyrics, continues to be available on the platform. Meanwhile, no changes have been made to Apple Music’s platform.
Earlier this month, The Advocatereported that the song was accessible on major music streaming platforms, including Spotify and Apple Music, despite its derogatory lyrics towards transgender individuals, including a slur to describe them. The situation caught the attention of GLAAD, which then took up the issue with Spotify’s trust and safety team.
In an updated statement provided to The Advocate, a spokesperson from GLAAD emphasized the importance of enforcing hate speech policies by companies.
“Companies have hate speech policies to protect all users from toxic content and especially from content that incites violence against marginalized people. When these policies are violated, it is important to see companies enforce them,” the statement read.
GLAAD’s statement highlighted the grave real-world implications of hateful rhetoric and imagery connecting it to a tragic incident.
“The terrible murder of Lauri Carlton, an ally who had hung a Pride flag outside her store, is connected to a suspect who had an image of a burning Pride flag pinned to his Twitter profile,” the statement added.
The spokesperson further noted, “Rhetoric, images, and targeting of LGBTQ people encourages real-world harms. Companies and brands must continue to recognize their responsibility to people’s safety and public safety and immediately act to avoid facilitating anti-LGBTQ hate and violence.”
Spotify responded by removing the album cover and video imagery that included a burning Progress Pride flag GLAAD noted to The Advocate. Despite these steps, the song itself, carrying an anti-trans slur and dehumanizing transgender people as “demons,” remains live on Spotify’s platform.
Both Spotify and Apple Music have policies in place to moderate content on their platforms. Apple Music for Artists’ terms of service stipulates that all lyrics provided to the platform must be “correct, accurate, and do not contain hate speech.” On the other hand, Spotify’s Dangerous Content policy bars “content that incites violence or hatred towards a person or group of people based on race, religion, gender identity or expression.”
Despite these policies, Apple Music has yet to make any changes or respond to inquiries regarding the song’s availability on its platform.
In a prior response, GLAAD had stressed the digital sphere’s struggle with hate speech moderation, especially concerning anti-LGBTQ+ content, which extends beyond the realm of music streaming platforms. Their concern was not only about the derogatory lyrics but also the inconsistency in enforcing content policies by these platforms, which undermines the safety and inclusivity of all users.
As the scrutiny continues, both Spotify and Apple Music remain unresponsive to multiple inquiries from The Advocate regarding this issue. This scenario underscores a broader discussion concerning digital content moderation on streaming platforms, especially around anti-LGBTQ+ content.
I don't know this song. I won't listen to this song. I don't care about it.
But it becomes a slippery slope when censorship gets blown up like this. I'd rather it all be on there and I can choose to not listen to it than for them to tell me what I'm allowed to listen to on their platform. Are they going to start banning Bloodhound gang or Eminem for homophobia and violence? What about Rotting Christ for anti religion? Dying Fetus?
It should stay on the platforms and collect dust instead of being shared by articles. I probably would have never even heard of this, but now I'm worried that some of the music I listen to will be collateral.
No it doesn't. Last I heard Spotify isn't a branch of government. Until such time as we nationalize them. They're free to deplatform anyone and everyone they want within reason.
The problem is, they're only out for money and have no moral compass. Combine that with the burgeoning fascism problem we have in the US for instance. You get this. There's money to be made marketing and appealing to bigots and their ilk. And they're gonna keep doing it till it costs them. Expect no meaningful action.
Feel how you want, but Spotify has a very clear policy on hateful content. And sure, maybe you won't listen to it, but do you know who will? Bigoted psychos that will go out and commit a hate crime. Allowing content like this on a popular platform will lead to hate crimes. There is nothing wrong with private platforms choosing to not platform certain kinds of content and it is entirely within their right.
Spotify has the right to deplatfom hateful content and doing so is the ethical thing to do.
There's plenty of really offensive music out there, and you can't put one group on a pedestal and say 'but these guys you can't ridicule.' .. Except..
Thinking about it, the offensive music is towards people with bat-shit crazy belief systems etc, rather than criticising people for what they are. I don't think I would be ok with racist music for example, or music that targets.. idk, bald people, because it's something they can't change.
So actually, I agree, ban the song. Let's go back to ridiculing Christians, Scientologists, Muslims, Hindus, communists, etc because those are all belief systems that people can change.
For an 11 year old to be so full of hate someone must be pushing an agenda on them pretty hard and in this case at the very least it ain’t the drag queens.
Guys, I hate it too. But we can't just remove every single piece of art we find objectionable. Yes, I am using the word Art liberally. Do you really want to live in that world?
Eminem has a lot of homophobic lyrics. Think you're going to get him removed? Music has always pushed the boundaries of what's acceptable. Sometimes that's a good thing, other times it's not. But I think an artists freedom of expression overrides your feelings.
this is just a slightly repackaged version of the typical "If I cant say the N word then its a slippery slope and before you know it its 1984" argument freeze peach absolutists use.
True. This song is current and plays very outspoken into a hate narrative that is tolerated by mainstream culture and is having real impacts on people today. Not that homophobia isn't also a part of this same thing but. This song was written with only the purpose of promoting this specific fascist hate movement. Fascist media shouldn't be tolerated anywhere by anyone. Tolerating them is the first step towards legitimizing them. A tolerant society must excise fascism from its roots wherever it should grow. We have already failed in this, but the least we can do is condemn fascists and the organizations that harbor their content.
If there is an argument to be made here, it’s whether or not the song calls for intolerance à la the paradox of tolerance. There’s plenty of pornogrind, slam, and other brutal death metal on Spotify that’s thematically horrific. While the subject is definitely about really sadistic shit, there’s no overt message to go out and do that or that there are classes of people that deserve that. If this is just bullshit biblical propaganda, whatever, slam is gnarlier than Lot’s daughters. If this is advocating for the removal of a class of people, it might be warranted.
I didn’t read or search for the lyrics because fuck driving traffic to this garbage.
Hmm... You know, every argument I can come up with about why that might be okay could be just as easily applied by the trans-phobes.
"Well maybe we need to consider whether people might actually act on it". In the case of gangs, they definitely do. Gang violence is as bad as ever. Meanwhile, I suspect this antitrans song will provoke far less action than some diss tracks.
"Yeah but it's somewhat of a cultural thing, if we take it away from them it's going to start a whole big thing"... Black inner city culture / white country boy culture... They'll both react the same way.
Is it just the quantity of it? There's more gang rap so it's become normalized? That doesn't bode well for what we can expect from these country folk.
Seriously, I can't think of a good reason why gang rap that encourages violence should be allowed while this isn't.
I listen to a lot of death metal including brutal death metal that has lyrics that many would find objectionable. I guess the key difference is that death metal is not expressing the views of the artist. Still, there are plenty of artists with objectionable views whose songs are not deplatformed.
I find it amazing how just generalized human thought is, that just because one false slippery slope has been identified as fallacious, that any argument about a slippery slope is therefore a fallacy and less valid. I do not think Humanity will be saved by the existence of any philosophy or movement, because we will always find some way to pervert the movement or apply the teachings in terrible ways.
I dislike journalism that gives you their conclusions, but not the evidence by which they drew the conclusions. Quoting a single word is not the same as quoting the lyrics and the context around them so that we could either agree with the conclusion or not.
Let people be damned by their own actions and their own words, no need to editorialize evidence.
Ah I see where you went wrong. That’s the hit song 2 Genders by Tyson James. What this article is about is the hit song Still 2 Genders by Tyson James.
Thanks for pointing that out! The original article had linked to the lyrics it would have reduced the confusion..
I couldn't find the lyrics for " still two genders ", but I found the music video on YouTube.
Here's the video ID, you can put that in the YouTube manually, but I'm not going to link it directly for obvious reasons. Twhftjwdi-k
They did say demons, " all these demons are going to burn for it"
And they did call the president a Pedo.
I didn't catch everything they said, some of it was a little mumbled, I didn't catch any other slurs.
It's not great, these are not good people. It's like 4chan made a music video. With the same production values. Even talking about them is winning. Any media attention they get is good for them, they're so tiny.
Thank you for posting the actual lyrics. I agree with you, the song is cringe AF, but I don't see any slurs. A gender critical position is not inherently a derogatory position. The song seems to be arguing for two biological sexes rather than gender (identity) based on its language.
I believe that restrictions on creative freedom are morally wrong, even if the intent is to prevent hurtful or offensive content. Art is meant to be provocative and make a statement after all.
That said after reading some of the lyrics, it is clear that this song is actually advocating murder via burning of queer individuals, which is both wrong morally and not protected speech under us law.
I'm offended at their manipulation of album art. They're trampling my sacred beliefs of preservation of original work! I guess what I find sacred didn't matter so much as some gross peoples' fetishes.