Spotify has announced the acquisition of Kinzen, a Dublin-based tech company focused on content moderation to ramp up its platform safety efforts. Kinzen uses machine learning to monitor and analyse potentially harmful content and hate speech in multiple languages, boosted by the support of human expertise.
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According to Spotify, this acquisition will help it effectively deliver safer, more enjoyable content on its platform. It said that Kinzen has unique technologies that is well-suited for monitoring podcasts and other audio formats, adding that its value to Spotify is “clear and unmatched”.
Spotify’s global head of public affairs, Dustee Jenkins, explained that through its acquisition of Kinzen, the music streaming company can now address harmful content in a local context.
“We’ve long had an impactful and collaborative partnership with Kinzen and its exceptional team,” Jenkins said. “Now, working together as one, we’ll be able to even further improve our ability to detect and address harmful content, and importantly, in a way that better considers local context.”
The company highlighted how difficult it is for these algorithms to pick up harmful content in multiple languages, which Kinzen has apparently been able to achieve.
“Given the complexity of analyzing audio content in hundreds of languages and dialects, and the challenges in effectively evaluating the nuance and intent of that content, the acquisition of Kinzen will help Spotify better understand the abuse landscape and identify emerging threats on the platform.”
“The combination of tools and expert insights is Kinzen’s unique strength that we see as essential to identifying emerging abuse trends in markets and moderating potentially dangerous content at scale,” said Sarah Hoyle, Spotify’s Head of Trust and Safety. “This expansion of our team, combined with the launch of our Safety Advisory Council, demonstrates the proactive approach we’re taking in this important space.”
