Porn Videos Appear in Spotify Search Results with Explicit Thumbnails

Photo Credit: Spotify

Explicit porn videos are appearing in Spotify search results. A redditor captured an image of their search results after typing in the phrase ‘mia.’ One result appears to show Mia Khalifa—a former porn actress.In a thread titled, ‘what the actual f*ck’ with the screenshot attached, redditor ‘Milk_Steak_Jabroni’ posted the screenshot to ask the r/truespotify community about the issue. The screen grab contains an explicit image with the caption, ‘Mia Khalifa Fu¢ks on the Casting Couch.’ Upon investigating this instance of porn popping up, The Verge says it was unable to find this specific video when searching—but found several other pornographic results on Spotify.

At least one of the accounts that is posting the videos is taking advantage of Spotify’s new video feature. The account has published erotic audio on the platform for years, but now sexually explicit material is now appearing. Another account appears to have began posting in November 2024 and exclusively posts these videos.

Spotify has quickly responded to these explicit results appearing in searches and removed them due to “violation of our policies.” Spotify’s policy forbids uploading sexually explicit material to the platform. Those uploading the videos appear to be using an unmoderated podcast upload to get the videos to appear as a Spotify search results. Reporting content like this isn’t convenient because Spotify only allows reports through a webpage rather than anywhere on the offending content in the app.Spotify as a platform is no stranger to sexually explicit content, despite its policies. In 2022, Vice reported on sexually explicit audio on the platform and other graphic nudity including user-made playlist cover art. Aside from sexually explicit material, Spotify also hosted dozens of neo-Nazi and white supremacist playlists for years.

A Digital Music News report was instrumental in helping Spotify take action against 37 different bands whose lyrics contained white supremacist messages, neo-Nazi allegories, and hate against others. Spotify’s policy forbids any content with a principle purpose of inciting hate against others.