Spotify has added new automatic moderation tools to its podcast commenting features, first added to the platform in July. Creators can now choose from three moderation settings for English-language comments to ease the workload of monitoring episodes.
This feature will immediately publish comments that meet Spotify’s content guidelines while flagging any potentially sensitive or inappropriate comments for creator review. As Spotify continues to develop its automatic detection systems, comments in non-English languages will still require manual approval.
The three sensitivity settings are standard, high, and low.
Standard, which is the default setting, automatically publishes comments that comply with Spotify’s guidelines while holding back potentially sensitive or inappropriate comments for review. High holds all comments for review, requiring creator approval before anything is published.
Low publishes all comments automatically, including those marked as potentially sensitive or inappropriate. Comments that directly violate Spotify’s platform rules are still filtered and removed automatically. Any comments published under the “Low” setting or approved by creators but deemed potentially sensitive or inappropriate will be hidden by default. Listeners will need to select “Show all comments” to view such comments, adding a layer of protection.
For creators looking to exercise even more control over their comment sections, Spotify has also introduced a customizable keyword blocklist. This tool enables podcasters to block specific words, phrases, or emojis from appearing on their episodes. Comments containing blocklisted terms are automatically flagged and held for manual review.
Support for additional languages and further interaction features are reportedly in development.
Spotify says since launching global podcast comments, listeners have contributed over 2.5 million comments across 650,000 episodes, with approximately 44% of these comments receiving a like or reply from creators.