Spotify is taking an unprecedented stand, by supporting the #MuteRKelly protest!

Read on to see what Sptify is doing and how this is just the beginning….

CelebNMusic247.com has received a statement to Billboard, via Spotify which reveals the following action:

We are removing R. Kelly’s music from all Spotify owned and operated playlists and algorithmic recommendations such as Discover Weekly. His music will still be available on the service, but Spotify will not actively promote it

Apparently, Spotify is following the lead of Time’s Up, who are pushing to #MuteRKelly.

But this isn’t just about Kels.

It’s all part of Spotify’s new “Hate Content and Hateful Conduct” policy announced on Thursday in which Spotify may remove or stop promotion of content that “incites hatred or violence”“incites hatred or violence” based on “race, religion, gender identity,” etc.

Jonathan Prince, Spotify’s vp/head of content and marketplace policy, tells Billboard:

When we look at promotion, we look at issues around hateful conduct, where you have an artist or another creator who has done something off-platform that is so particularly out of line with our values, egregious, in a way that it becomes something that we don’t want to associate ourselves with. So we’ve decided that in some circumstances, we may choose to not work with that artist or their content in the same way — to not program it, to not playlist it, to not do artist marketing campaigns with that artist.

How will Spotify accomplish their goal and sweep away the “Hate Content and Hateful Conduct” in all 50 countries worldwide where its available?

Spotify will work together with several advocacy groups to determine its definition of hate content, including The Southern Poverty Law Center, The Anti-Defamation League, Color Of Change, Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), GLAAD, Muslim Advocates and the International Network Against Cyber Hate.

In addition, Spotify announcement also states:

We’ve also thought long and hard about how to handle content that is not hate content itself, but is principally made by artists or other creators who have demonstrated hateful conduct personally…

…While we don’t believe in censoring content because of an artist’s or creator’s behavior, we want our editorial decisions – what we choose to program – to reflect our values. So, in some circumstances, when an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful (for example, violence against children and sexual violence), it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator.

Currently R Kelly and XXXTentacion arer the first artist to be blacklisted aka “MUTED” from the streaming service. XXXTentacion, faced charges of battery against a pregnant woman late last year.

Kelly’s management team responded with a statement to The New York Times, saying Spotify’s decision to give into an “ongoing smear campaign” was “unfortunate and shortsighted”:

Spotify has the right to promote whatever music it chooses, and in this case its actions are without merit. It is acting based on false and unproven allegations. It is bowing to social-media fads and picking sides in a fame-seeking dispute over matters that have nothing to do with serving customers.