Spotify has spent the past year quietly removing tens of thousands of fake podcasts that were allegedly being used to promote illegal online pharmacies and scam websites. Now, a new congressional report is raising questions about how the scheme was able to flourish on one of the world’s largest audio platforms in the first place.
According to the Wired report, bad actors created thousands of fake podcasts that were never intended to attract real listeners. Instead, they were designed to manipulate Spotify’s search rankings and boost the visibility of websites selling prescription drugs without prescriptions, including opioids, stimulants, and benzodiazepines.
Spotify reportedly removed more than 57,000 podcast episodes, over 3,000 podcast shows, and took action against roughly 3,500 accounts connected to the operation. The takedown came after sustained scrutiny from lawmakers and media investigations that highlighted the scale of the problem.
The report was led by Senator Maggie Hassan, who criticized Spotify for not moving quickly enough and for failing to report the activity to law enforcement despite links to websites involved in illegal drug sales.
The podcasts were never really podcasts
One of the more surprising details is that most of the content wasn’t created to be consumed.
Spotify told investigators that many of the fake podcasts functioned primarily as search-engine spam. The operators reportedly stuffed podcast titles, descriptions, and cover art with links directing users to online pharmacy websites and scam operations. The goal was to exploit Spotify’s authority in search engines and improve the ranking of those external sites.
In fact, Spotify said 94% of the removed episodes received zero plays, while 99% attracted fewer than 10 streams. However, some episodes did find an audience. A handful reportedly generated thousands of listens and included instructions for purchasing drugs such as modafinil using cryptocurrency.
The report also found similar content appearing across other podcast platforms, highlighting how easy it has become to distribute large amounts of low-quality content across multiple services at once.
AI is making the spam problem even bigger
Researchers and lawmakers believe artificial intelligence is making these operations easier to run.
The report points to AI-generated podcasts featuring synthetic voices and automatically generated content designed to mimic legitimate shows. Spotify told investigators it currently has AI moderation systems for music spam but does not specifically prohibit AI-generated podcasts. The company also acknowledged that it is not particularly well-positioned to identify AI-created podcast content.
Spotify says it uses automated detection tools, human reviewers, and external moderation services to identify rule-breaking content. However, the congressional report argues that the scale of the fake podcast operation demonstrates significant gaps in those defenses.
The incident highlights a growing challenge facing internet platforms. As AI makes it cheaper and faster to create content at scale, spam campaigns no longer need websites alone. They can exploit trusted platforms, search algorithms, and recommendation systems to reach users in ways that are increasingly difficult to detect.
For Spotify, the controversy is a reminder that content moderation challenges are no longer limited to social networks. Even podcast platforms are becoming targets for sophisticated spam operations designed to game search rankings and funnel users toward illegal or potentially dangerous services.