A report by the Centre for the Study of Organised Hate (CSoH) published on June 15, 2026, shed light on how digital platforms enable the reach of hate-fuelled music in India, not only allowing it to flourish, despite violating their own content policies, but also profiting from its unchecked dissemination.

The specific genre of music studied in this report, titled ‘Profiting from Hate Music’, operates within a Hindu nationalist/Hindutva ideological framework, deploying dehumanising rhetoric against religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Christians. The report also states that this music openly incites listeners to commit violence against the targeted communities.

The term for this genre of music was first coined by journalist and author Kunal Purohit in his 2023 book titled ‘H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars’ as “Hindutva-pop” or “H-Pop”. The book examined how Hindutva pop, becoming an extension of the larger pop culture that influences masses, become one of the most effective vehicles for promoting Hindu majoritarianism and prejudice against religious minorities.

Centre for the Study of Organised Hate (CSoH), a nonprofit, US-based think tank, conducts evidence-based research on hate, violence, extremism, radicalism and online harms. Their previous publications include detailed analyses of hate speech and discriminatory trends targeting groups of minorities across categories of religion, race, nationality, caste, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation. Fundamentally, the organisation studies hate as an organised phenomenon.

The organisation’s website describes them as “collaborating with universities, government bodies, and human rights organisations to translate rigorous research into actionable policy solutions.” Alt News had written on on CSoH’s annual report on hate speech events in India last year.

For the purpose of the study, the four platforms selected were YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, and Meta’s Music Library. Across these platforms, a total of 523 songs were identified that violate the platforms’ own respective content policies and guidelines, with 210 on YouTube, 109 on Spotify, 103 on Meta’s Music Library, and 101 on Apple Music.

The report further identifies instances where this hate takes the form of explicit calls for violence or bodily harm. Out of the 523 violative songs identified, one in every two was found to explicitly call for violence, indicating that 50% of the songs studied show a propensity toward inspiring real-world violence, calling for killing or harming Muslims and other religious minorities for posing a fabricated threat to Hindus and Hindutva.

The report outlines the........

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