From now on, Spotify posts warnings on all COVID-19 related content that appears on its platform. Service diffusion It took all the time in the world to implement this long-awaited feature, but it finally answered the claims stemming mainly from the multiple controversies on the Joe Rogan podcast.
This option had been promised by Spotify after triggering strong criticism from various artists, who accused the Swedish company of spreading false or misleading information about the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines. Thus, users will begin to see a small sign in blue which will notify them when the content they are browsing is related to the coronavirus.
What is really striking is that the alerts began to appear at a time when COVID-19 ceased to be a central issue in many parts of the world; not only because of the sustained decline in the number of hospitalizations and deaths caused by the disease — and the gradual return to normality — but also because other issues have become more relevant, such as the war between Russia and Ukraine.
However, it is still important that content posted to Spotify has this disclaimer. By touching it, users access publications of reputable entitiessuch as the World Health Organization and other trusted content sources.
Posts “promoted” through this COVID-19 guide include podcasts from BBC News, be in chain and cnn in spanish, among others. From what has been seen, the material available varies according to the location of the audience to show mainly content in their language.
Spotify seeks to appease critics after Joe Rogan scandals
One important thing to keep in mind is that this new Spotify feature not yet available in all countries. At the time of writing, we could see it active from Argentina, but it might take time to appear in other markets.
Indeed, during our test we realized that the translations are incomplete. It would be a sign that the streaming service is still working on its final implementation.
As we mentioned in the previous paragraphs, it seems that Spotify he was not in too much of a hurry to implement this long-awaited feature. And although it is a way to appease the spirits due to the scandals derived from The Joe Rogan ExperienceIt’s been more than two months since Neil Young threatened to quit the platform (which he finally did) and the fire around the podcast and its controversial host has reignited.
Since then, a bit of everything has happened. Joe Rogan apologized but denied being a spreader of misinformation; Joni Mitchell and Brené Brown also walked away from the platform; Neil Young came back and asked Spotify employees to quit their jobs; Spotify has disclaimed any liability in this regard, citing its role as a distributor and not as a publisher of the content; and another podcast launched its own crusade to deny all the lies about COVID-19 that emerged from the aforementioned show.
For the moment, Spotify has quietly issued content warnings for all coronavirus-related posts. It’s still unclear if there are other similar measures in the pipeline, or if this just seeks to calm the waters after several convulsive weeks. For the moment, the Swedish company has not publicly mentioned this novelty, either on its blog or on social networks. We will be attentive to the news.
