Charlottesville has inspired domain servers and social platforms to act and take more action against white supremacy. Now, music-streaming services are stepping up.

Spotify has pulled several white-supremacist bands from its service, Billboard reported Wednesday.

This move comes three years after Southern Poverty Law Center flagged a certain number of groups as "hate bands," according to Billboard. Just a few days ago, violence broke out and one woman died in Charlottesville, Virginia during the "Unite The Right" rally.

On Monday, Digital Music News published a story titled "I Just Found 27 White Supremacist Hate Bands on Spotify."

Spotify confirmed to Billboard that it had removed some bands but declined to name any specific groups.

"Illegal content or material that favors hatred or incites violence against race, religion, sexuality or the like is not tolerated by us," a Spotify spokesperson told Billboard. "Spotify takes immediate action to remove any such material as soon as it has been brought to our attention. We are glad to have been alerted to this content - and have already removed many of the bands identified today, whilst urgently reviewing the remainder," the statement continued.

Spotify is looking into proactively blocking this type of content from being recommended by its platform, according to Billboard.

Pandora has taken action against similar music as wel.

“We take action to remove content of this nature from Pandora. We removed much of this content in 2014 and are in the process of removing the remaining material now," a Pandora spokesperson said in an emailed statement to Mashable.

SoundCloud also has a policy against music that incites violence.

"We clearly forbid content that is obscene, promotes or incites hatred and violence, or is otherwise objectionable in our Terms of Use and Community Guidelines. As soon as it's brought to our attention, our dedicated Trust & Safety team act quickly to review. If we determine that reported content is in violation of our Terms of Use, we promptly remove it from the platform," a SoundCloud spokesperson said in an email statement.

Deezer issued a statement to Mashable, following Spotify's actions.

"Deezer does not condone any type of discrimination or form of hate against individuals or groups because of their race, religion, gender or sexuality. We are in the process of swiftly and actively reviewing the content on our platform and have begun and will continue to remove any material that is in any way connected to any white supremacist movement or belief system," a Deezer spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Simultaneously, Spotify created playlist called "Patriotic Passion" that includes Jimi Hendrix rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, Lady Gaga's "Americano," and Khalid's "American Teen," according to Billboard.

"Our new Patriotic Passion playlist is a soundtrack to an America worth fighting for," a Spotify spokesperson wrote in an email.

Deezer's editorial team also will be releasing a playlist in support of the victims of the events in Charlottesville, according to a spokesperson.

Spotify hasn't been shy of promoting playlists that opposed actions by the U.S. government. For example, Spotify launched an initiative in July called "I'm with the banned" by spotlighting music and videos from artists from Iran, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Sudan, and Libya — six countries affected President Donald Trump's travel ban.

Apple Music did not immediately respond to a request for comment if they are making similar moves to take action against any hate music on their platforms.

This post was updated to include a statement from Pandora, Deezer, SoundCloud, and additional information from Spotify.











