LICRA denounces Spotify for giving platform to antisemites Dieudonné and Soral

LICRA, Get The Trolls Out! partner organisation in France, has denounced on Twitter the audio streaming provider Spotify for giving a platform to Dieudonné M’Bala M’Bala and Alain Soral, two well known figures who have been sentenced on the grounds of antisemitism and Holocaust denial. 

The French comedian Dieudonné, who invented the inverted Nazi salute called ‘quenelle’, was banned from YouTube and Instagram for breaching the platforms’ policies, following numerous interventions by LICRA.  He has been prosecuted several times for hate speech and incitement to violence, and convicted on the grounds of hate speech in Belgium, and money laundering in France.  

Alain Soral, who is on trial for performing the quenelle gesture at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, is a publicist and founder of the political association Égalité et Réconciliation. Soral is also the publisher of far-right, antisemitic books and sells merchandise on the subject. His two YouTube channels were banned for inciting hatred. 

While banning them on YouTube gave a blow to their thriving, far-right, antisemitic businesses, they can still disseminate disinformation and seek new audiences using Spotify. LICRA has asked Spotify France to explain why they have allowed them to continue promoting hate on their platform.