Spotify is adding COVID-19 content advisories to all relevant podcast episodes, the streaming company has announced in a new statement.Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Crazy Horse member Nils Lofgren have pulled their music from the platform after Young sparked a protest against the misinformation being spread about the virus on Joe Rogan’s Spotify podcast.Now, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has responded in an official statement that sets out the company’s plan to tackle the spread of misinformation on its site.
The main proponent of that plan involves adding content advisories to every podcast episode that discusses coronavirus.“This advisory will direct listeners to our dedicated COVID-19 Hub, a resource that provides easy access to data-driven facts, up-to-date information as shared by scientists, physicians, academics and public health authorities around the world, as well as links to trusted sources,” the statement said.“This new effort to combat misinformation will roll out to countries around the world in the coming days.
To our knowledge, this content advisory is the first of its kind by a major podcast platform.”Spotify’s platform rules – which tell creators what is and isn’t allowed to be published on the service – have also been made viewable by the public for the first time.
Among them, users are told they cannot publish “content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health”.Illustrating what that could include, the company uses the examples of calling COVID-19 “a hoax or not real” or “encouraging people to purposely get infected with COVID-19 in order to build immunity to it”.
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