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submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

Spotify, the world’s leading music streaming platform, is facing intense criticism and boycott calls following CEO Daniel Ek’s announcement of a €600m ($702m) investment in Helsing, a German defence startup specialising in AI-powered combat drones and military software.

The move, announced on 17 June, has sparked widespread outrage from musicians, activists and social media users who accuse Ek of funnelling profits from music streaming into the military industry.

Many have started calling on users to cancel their subscriptions to the service.

“Finally cancelling my Spotify subscription – why am I paying for a fuckass app that works worse than it did 10 years ago, while their CEO spends all my money on technofascist military fantasies?” said one user on X.

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[-] [email protected] 73 points 1 day ago

I think one of the most toxic things on Lemmy is the prevalence of judging normies for using incredibly popular services and ascribing it to a character defect instead of life just being too complex for most people to be able to prioritize exploring more ethical technology choices.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I get where you're coming from, but it's not like there aren't multiple obvious alternatives (and not just on the fediverse). And someone being clued in enough to boycott Spotify should have no trouble finding those alternatives. Additionally, the platform being owned by an outright Nazi should give even the most out of touch people pause.

But agreed that people could stand to be a bit more tactful about it and not immediately go on the attack.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Additionally, the platform being owned by an outright Nazi should give even the most out of touch people pause.

How is Daniel Ek a nazi? That's a wild take if I've ever heard one.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago

I thought it was clear from context I was talking about X.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

Oh shit, my bad. Yeah, hard agree there

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this post was submitted on 27 Jun 2025
731 points (98.0% liked)

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