Spotify isn’t afraid of hitting pause on their music artists.

On Thursday, Spotify implemented its new Hate Content & Hateful Conduct policy, which allows the music-streaming service to ban or hide music or artists from its popular playlists. The policy outlines Spotify’s ideology on “hateful” or “harmful” content in songs and from artists whose actions are deemed unethical. The first two artists that Spotify has banned are R. Kelly and hip-hop artist XXXTentacion.

According to Spotify, those two artists do not “reflect their values,” citing violence against children or sexual violence as reasons for their bans. Kelly is currently facing allegations for holding several women in a sex cult and sexually abusing underage girls, while XXXTentacion faces charges for aggravated battery of a pregnant woman with whom he had a relationship with in 2016.

Although Kelly has never been formally charged for his alleged crimes, public backlash calling for the music industry to sever ties with him has increased in recent weeks with social media movements like #MuteRKelly. Spotify is the first high profile company that has openly taken action against Kelly while its closest competitor, Apple Music, has stayed silent.

While Spotify may think it has moral justification for imposing the policy on Kelly and other artists facing similar allegations, it also raises questions about the role streaming platforms play in the consumption of music.

Spotify has 170 million users worldwide and is projected to grow even more as the music industry transitions from downloads to streaming. Users are still able to search for their favourite artists and songs outside of curated/popular playlists, meaning that Spotify’s new policy is less effective than it seems. Users and fans will continue to stream music by their favourite artists regardless of allegations made against them. And given how little money Kelly and XXXTentacion make from Spotify (the company pays about $7 per 1,000 streams), it is unlikely that both artists will suffer financially as a result of their bans.

A better way of drawing the boundaries would be to pull their songs off of Spotify completely and deny them visibility on the service. By allowing Kelly and XXXTentacion to stay on the service, Spotify is sending mixed messages about their views on tolerance and respect because both artists are still being heard by the public.

Spotify’s policy is also inconsistent as there isn’t a definitive answer as to which artists or songs should be removed from the service. Based on assessments leading to Kelly and XXXTentacion’s ban, artists such as Ozzy Osbourne, Eminem, and Chris Brown, who have been convicted or accused of domestic or sexual violence, would be impacted as well. However, those artists and their songs continue be promoted on Spotify’s playlists.

Another issue that the policy has not adequately addressed is the fact that music is hard to censor. Every genre of music has had its fair share of offensive and profanity-laced lyricism, but artists are still getting paid through radio deals and touring. A playlist ban seems insignificant in raising awareness about the music industry’s inaction towards artists with inappropriate conduct.

Instead of implementing a policy that only works on a case-by-case basis, Spotify needs to settle on a business model that limits visibility for artists with hateful or harmful conducts without alienating their user base.

Spotify can do that by creating a tool that would allow users to blacklist the artists or songs they don’t want to hear. The tool would give users the power to decide whether or not it’s worth giving money to artists with questionable moral conducts while still allowing Spotify to remain in the curation business.

In a post #MeToo era where accountability is becoming increasingly important, Spotify’s policy is a step in the right direction. It just needs more fine tuning.