Spotify to add content advisory to podcasts discussing COVID-19

Spotify has just announced its new platform rules and approach to COVID-19, including adding a content advisory to podcasts that include discussion about COVID-19.

According to the platform, they received a lot of questions over the last few days regarding their platform policies. Moreover, Spotify mentioned that they have had rules but admitted that they haven’t been transparent around policies that broadly guide their content.

“Based on the feedback over the last several 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 guiding us through this unprecedented time. These issues are incredibly complex,” said Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, in a blog post.

Spotify published its “long-standing” platform rules. The company mentioned that these policies were developed by its internal team with some outside experts and will be updated regularly to reflect the changing safety landscape.

In addition, they are also working on adding a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19. This advisory will direct listeners to Spotify’s 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 globally, including links to trusted sources.

“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,” said Daniel.

In the newly published Platform Rules, Spotify bars creators from “content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health, including the following:

• asserting that AIDS, COVID-19, cancer, or other serious life-threatening diseases is a hoax or not real
• encouraging the consumption of bleach products to cure various illnesses and diseases
• promoting or suggesting that vaccines approved by local health authorities are designed to cause death
• encouraging people to purposely get infected with COVID-19 to build immunity to it (e.g., promoting or hosting “coronavirus parties”)

Furthermore, the company will begin testing ways to highlight its Platform Rules in its creator and publisher tools to raise awareness around what’s acceptable and help creators understand their accountability for the content they post on the platform.

Source: Spotify

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