Spotify will now add COVID-19 content tips to podcast episodes that discuss the virus, following criticism over its handling of controversial content on the Joe Rogan Experience. The tips will direct users to Spotify's COVID-19 hub, which contains reliable and up-to-date information about the pandemic.
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To increase transparency about how it’s addressing the issue, Spotify is posting its COVID-19 content policy and general platform rules on its website. Spotify says anyone who violates the rules can have the content removed, or their account may be suspended or banned if they continue.
According to the policy, Spotify prohibits content that claims that “AIDS, COVID-19, cancer, or other serious and life-threatening diseases are hoaxes or not real.” The platform also prohibits content that encourages peopleto “intentionally become infected with COVID-19 to build immunity” and does not allow content that suggests that vaccines are “designed to cause death.”
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However, compared to a document published internally, the wording in the examples has changed and one line is missing entirely. Specifically, it says: “Suggestions that wearing a mask will cause the wearer imminent, life-threatening physical harm.”
“There have been many questions in recent days about our platform policies and the lines we have drawn between what is acceptable and what is not,” Spotify CEO Daniel Ekin a blog post. “We’ve had rules in place for many years, but admittedly, we haven’t been clear enough about the policies that guide our content more broadly…Based on the feedback over the past few weeks, it’s become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities that are guiding us through this unprecedented time.”
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Neil Young, Joni Mitchell , and Nils Lofgren have all removed their music from the platform in protest of Joe Rogan's podcast, which, among other things, suggested that healthy young people don't need the vaccine . Popular podcaster Brené Brown also says she will take a break from adding new episodes to her Spotify-exclusive shows, though it's unclear whether the controversy surrounding Rogan was the reason.
