Spotify deletes the podcasts of far-right polemicist Alain Soral


After the Joe Rogan affair in the United States, Spotify is again in turmoil, but in France this time. In question: the hosting of content linked to the channel of the far-right ideologue, Alain Soral. The ERFM account has been deleted and blocked.

Spring isn’t here yet, but little hands are already busy cleaning up. Spotify France has decided to remove content linked to the ERFM channel of Alain Soral, essayist and far-right activist, who has been repeatedly convicted of racism and anti-Semitism. The platform has indicated to our colleagues from BFMTV that this sanction comes within the framework of its new policy relating to disinformation on Covid-19.

“Spotify has decided to remove podcasts and has blocked the ERFM account from its platform due to non-compliance with its content policy”specifies the company which “started adding a content advisory to all podcasts that mention Covid-19.” The French branch of Spotify had notably been challenged on Twitter by Tristan Mendès-France, lecturer at the University of Paris and specialist in digital cultures. The man then took advantage of the media frenzy around the case between Neil Young and Spotify to enter the platform on the Soral and Dieudonné cases.

As a reminder, 76-year-old rocker Neil Young threatened to remove his entire discography from Spotify if action was not taken against misinformation. The American-Canadian musician was particularly targeting the podcast of the sulphurous Joe Rogan, whom he accused of having discouraged vaccination. Several other artists supported Neil Young in this fight. If the folk rock legend has since refocused his fight against Spotify and his boss, Daniel Ek, Joe Rogan’s podcasts continue to be hosted on the platform. But an information system leading to a hub on Covid-19 is now attached to it.

Concerning Alain Soral, the more brutal deletion of the ERFM account and the content it hosted is probably based on broader elements: disinformation on the coronavirus, conspiratorial or even anti-Semitic comments such as those extracted precisely by Tristan Mendès-France.





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