Spotify says it will add content advice to podcasts that discuss COVID-19.
Martin Bureau / AFP via Getty Images
hide captions
switch captions
Martin Bureau / AFP via Getty Images
Spotify says it will add content advice to podcasts that discuss COVID-19.
Martin Bureau / AFP via Getty Images
Music streaming service Spotify says it will make changes to protect against COVID-19 misinformation after a number of popular artists and public figures criticized the podcast hosting platform for eating. Joe Rogan’s guest, Joe Rogan’s Experience.
Music legend Neil Young and Joni Mitchell once pulled music from Spotify in protest of Rogan, who experts say has repeatedly made false claims about coronavirus and vaccines. Last weekend Nils Lofgren also confirmed he pulled his music. Author and researcher Brené Brown says she will stop releasing new podcasts until further notice, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have also expressed their concerns about COVID misinformation on the platform.
On Sunday, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement that the company does not want to be a “content moderator” but that it can be more transparent about its internal content policies.
“Based on feedback over the past few weeks, it’s clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to generally accepted information from the medical and scientific communities.” learning to guide us through this unprecedented time,” Ek said.
Spotify will add new content advice to any podcast episode discussing COVID-19, which will direct listeners to a hub with “data-driven truth, up-to-date information shared by scientists , doctors, academics and public health authorities around the world, as well as links to trusted sources.” Ek said the content advisor is said to be the first of its kind of a major podcasting platform.
The live streamer also published Ground rules and said it would work to raise awareness of those content rules among Spotify broadcasters and other creators. The rules include a ban on content that “promotes dangerously deceptive or false health information that could cause harm offline or pose a direct threat to public health.”
In December, a coalition of scientists, medical professionals and others sent Spotify a letter highlights false and misleading claims Rogan has made on his podcast, such as encouraging young people not to get vaccinated and promoting ivermectin to treat COVID-19 despite warnings to the contrary by the Food and Drug Administration.
