For the past year, Spotify has been quietly purging tens of thousands podcast which advertised illegal online pharmacies. A report released Thursday by Senator Maggie Hassan, the ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, criticizes the company for acting only after the media disclosed its contents and her office spent nearly a year seeking answers.
None of what it removed was sent to law enforcement, the report says.
Spotify reportedly removed more than 57,000 podcasts and 3,000 shows, and took enforcement action against 3,500 accounts, all of which pushed links to illegal online pharmacies promoting opioids, benzodiazepines, and stimulants over the counter. However, the report highlights the cleanup as a regulatory failure.
The report is based on one comparison in particular: Spotify took action against more than 3,500 accounts for drug content in 2025 but less than 100 the year before. The committee presents the statement as evidence that the company moved only after being investigated. Spotify gave a different explanation: that its past calculations are incomplete because, as it says in the report, it changed the way it tracks downloads last year.
A few offensive podcasts found an audience. Of the five that drew more than 100 plays, two combined drew 13,000 streams and drove listeners through buy modafinil, a stimulant, by sending. bitcoin. Another, with 125 games, linked to websites that market pharmacies for cancer and HIV drugs. Those were different, but they showed working ways to pay and order.
The numbers are alarming, and the stakes are real, Hassan says: Counterfeit pills bought online are often laced with fentanyl, and teenagers are among the most exposed.
“In the age of AI, all online platforms need to deploy advanced efforts to continue to identify and remove illegal content,” Hassan tells WIRED. “Failure to quickly detect and remove dangerous content and report it to law enforcement can have dire consequences—whether it’s a teenager buying drugs online that may be laced with dangerous fentanyl or a senior falling for a scam that wipes out their retirement savings.”
Asked about its approach to AI podcasts, Spotify spokeswoman Laura Batey says the company “has a long history of working with law enforcement when content violates the law.” He did not say whether Spotify makes immediate referrals to the Drug Enforcement Agency, or how often. Batey said Spotify is still looking into WIRED’s question about whether it tracks clicks on those links.
Spotify told the committee that its practice is to alert authorities only when it identifies a credible threat of serious harm: an imminent danger to someone’s life or safety. The podcast, which it had classified as a search-improvement initiative rather than evidence of actual drug sales, never met that bar, the company said.
While Spotify didn’t say whether it reports illegal drug activity to the DEA, the report says the company’s competitors answer that question directly: Snap frequently provides quick referrals to agencies, and Meta says it is cooperating with law enforcement to combat drug trafficking. Spotify’s position, according to the report, is that, as a licensed content streaming service, its duties differ from those of a social network.
At least one of the removed podcasts pointed to where law enforcement was already looking. The show the committee reported in July 2025–listed under the no-nonsense category and with a title advertising “authorized online retailer”–linked to a website called Opioidstores.com. The domain was later seized by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, working with the DEA, FDA, and other agencies. Spotify removed the podcast but, by its own account, did not report anything.
