Spotify will add a ‘content advisory’ to COVID-19 podcast episodes | Engadget

Following days of controversy stemming from Spotify’s dealing with of allegations that Joe Rogan has used the platform to unfold COVID-19 misinformation, the corporate mentioned on Sunday it could take new measures to level its customers to correct details about the pandemic. In a attributed to CEO Daniel Ek, the corporate admitted it hasn’t been clear sufficient about its content material coverage, however stopped in need of detailing any particular motion in opposition to Rogan.

Sometime within the subsequent few days, Spotify says it’s going to add a content material advisory to any podcast episode that features a dialogue about COVID-19. That advisory will direct listeners to the corporate’s . In its present iteration, the web page contains hyperlinks to podcasts from the BBC, ABC News and Foreign Policy. “To our knowledge, this content advisory is the first of its kind by a major podcast platform,” in accordance with Ek. However, social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have employed related measures.

Spotify has additionally pledged to publicly share its content material pointers. As of at the moment, you possibly can learn them by means of the corporate’s Newsroom . In the longer term, they’ll even be accessible by means of Spotify’s important web site, and the corporate has promised to translate them into a wide range of different languages. Lastly, the corporate says it plans to begin testing methods to spotlight its content material pointers within the instruments it gives to podcast producers and different creators.

“We know we have a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users,” Ek mentioned. “In that role, it is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them.”

The motion comes after musicians and pulled their music from the streaming platform in protest of its dealing with of Rogan’s podcast and misinformation extra broadly. Earlier at the moment, creator mentioned she wouldn’t launch any new episodes of her Spotify-exclusive podcast “until further notice.”

After Young first pulled his catalog from the platform, the corporate defended its file in opposition to misinformation by claiming it had eliminated 20,000 COVID-related episodes because the begin of the pandemic. However, as a part of that sweep, Spotify seems to haven’t eliminated any episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience. For occasion, you possibly can nonetheless hearken to the controversial episode the place Dr. Robert Malone falsely claims “mass formation psychosis” has led folks to consider vaccines are efficient in opposition to COVID-19.  subsequently printed the corporate’s . In an inside memo, Spotify mentioned Rogan’s content material didn’t “meet the brink for removing.”