Spotify will be adding content advisories to podcast episodes discussing COVID-19, shortly after artists like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from Spotify over Joe Rogan‘s podcast episode from December 31.
In a recent blog post, co-founder and CEO Daniel Ek shared that they are aiming to “combat misinformation” with the newly-added warnings. “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,” he wrote. “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.”
Ek added that Spotify has approached COVID-19 in a very serious manner, briefly detailing their courses of action since the pandemic started:
“We launched a variety of educational resources and campaigns to raise awareness and we developed and promoted a global COVID-19 Information Hub. We donated ad inventory to various organizations for vaccine awareness, funds to the World Health Organization and COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) to increase vaccine equity and supported the Go Give One fundraising campaign. And we established a music relief project to support the creative community. While this is not a complete list, I hope it gives you a sense of how seriously we’ve approached the pandemic as a company.”
Joe Rogan’s December 31, 2021 episode heard him and a virologist cast their doubts over the mRNA vaccine. Young thhen publicly slammed Spotify for “spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.” He added, “Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”
Elsewhere in music, Kendrick Lamar is expected to drop new music before the Super Bowl Halftime Show.
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