Social media platforms spread hate music in India despite policy violations, new report says

By — Zeba Warsi Zeba Warsi Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/social-media-platforms-spread-hate-music-in-india-despite-policy-violations-new-report-says Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Social media platforms spread hate music in India despite policy violations, new report says World Jun 15, 2026 5:58 PM EDT Yogi Adityanath's face fills the screen before a single lyric is sung. The Hindu monk-turned-politician, who governs India's most populous state, is pictured as dramatic music swells beneath images of cows, saffron flags and Hindu nationalist iconography. Then comes the threat. In "Gau Mata" ("Mother Cow") posted on YouTube, singer Biru Kataria warns India's Muslims that anyone who slaughters a cow will be hunted down, burned alive and cut to pieces. The song repeatedly uses the slur "katwein," a derogatory reference to circumcision, to describe Muslims. Adityanath is among the most recognizable faces of India's Hindu nationalist movement. He has championed aggressive cow-protection policies as cow vigilantism, where mobs attack people they accuse of slaughtering cows, considered sacred by Hindus, has been linked to the killings and lynchings of dozens of Muslims. Today, multiple versions of this track remain available on YouTube, and it has been used to create more than 40,000 Instagram reels. Hate music is often amplified online when it is reshared and reused by other creators. In India, music engineered to dehumanize religious minorities reaches hundreds of millions of listeners, delivered by big tech companies across popular social media platforms. Known as Hindutva pop, or H-Pop, the genre is rooted in Hindu nationalist ideology, a far-right supremacist belief that India is fundamentally a Hindu nation whose culture, politics and public life should be defined by its Hindu majority. Across hundreds of songs, India's Muslims and Christians are portrayed as enemies, invaders, traitors, demographic threats and legitimate targets of violence. A new report by the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH) , a Washington-based research organization, argues that this ecosystem of hate music is being hosted, amplified and monetized by four of the world's largest digital platforms: YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music and Meta. The report, "Profiting From Hate Music," documents what researchers describe as the first comprehensive mapping of hate music across India's digital landscape. It identifies 523 songs that promote hatred, dehumanization, conspiracy theories or violence against religious minorities, primarily Muslims and Christians, in violation of platforms' content policies. To test how and whether platforms were enforcing their rules on hateful or violent content, researchers reported a sample of 225 songs using the companies' own moderation systems. Only 18 were removed. More than 90% percent of flagged songs stayed online. "Even after reporting the conten