Podcast censorship (of a sort)

Podcasts, and content linked from podcasts, cannot contain any of the following:

Content that could be construed as racist, misogynist, or homophobic Content depicting graphic sex, violence, gore, illegal drugs, or hate themes

(UPDATED) In one sense of the term, podcasts are censored from the only directory most people will ever use, iTunes. Some of the same podcasts don’t show up in the indexes that podcast applications like Overcast maintain.

Not by any coïncidence whatsoever, all the affected podcasts are by conservatives. This shadowbanning seems to be deliberate.

Technical facts

The concept of a feed has never been adequately explained to laypeople. The current sense of the word refers to e.g. infinitely scrolling Facebook or Instagram “content.” Of course that’s another sense, but the original meaning referred to RSS, an acronym whose expansion is pointless, so don’t bother.

• RSS feeds are what make podcasts possible. These simple files tell any podcast reader, or any other application, if and when a podcast has been updated, and where any audio files are stored (for downloading or streaming).

RSS feeds are what make podcasts possible. These simple files tell any