From now on, Spotify shows warnings on all content related to COVID-19 that appears on its platform. The streaming service has taken all the time in the world to implement this long-awaited feature, but has finally responded to the claims stemming mainly from the multiple controversies of the Joe Rogan podcast.
This option had been promised by Spotify after unleashing strong criticism from various artists, who accused the Swedish company of allowing false or misleading information about the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines to spread. Thus, users will begin to see a small blue sign that will notify them when the content they are browsing is related to the coronavirus.
What is truly striking is that the alerts have begun to appear at a time when COVID-19 has ceased to be a central issue in many parts of the world; not only because of the sustained drop 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 published on Spotify have this warning. By tapping on it, users gain access to publications from reputable entities , such as the World Health Organization, and other reliable content sources.
Among the publications “promoted” through this guide on COVID-19 are podcasts from BBC News, Cadena Ser and CNN en Español, among others. From what has been seen, the available material varies according to the location of the public to show mainly content in their language.
Spotify seeks to appease criticism after the Joe Rogan scandals
Something important to keep in mind is that this new Spotify feature is not yet available in all countries. At the time of writing this article, we have been able to see it active from Argentina, but it could take time to appear in other markets.
In fact, during our test we realized that the translations are incomplete. This would be a sign that the streaming service is still working on its final implementation.
As we mentioned in previous paragraphs, it seems that Spotify was not in too much of a hurry to implement this long-awaited feature. And although it is a way to appease the spirits of the scandals derived from The Joe Rogan Experience, it has been more than two months since Neil Young threatened to leave the platform (which he finally did) and the fire around the podcast and its controversial host.
Since then, a bit of everything has happened. Joe Rogan apologized but denied being a disinformation spreader; Joni Mitchell and Brené Brown also walked away from the platform; Neil Young returned to the charge and asked Spotify employees to leave their jobs; Spotify excused itself from any responsibility on the subject, relying on its role as distributor and not as publisher of the content; and another podcast launched its own crusade to disprove all the falsehoods about COVID-19 that emerged from the aforementioned show.
For now, Spotify has quietly launched content warnings to all posts related to the coronavirus. It is still unknown if there are other similar measures in the pipeline, or if this is just looking to calm the waters after several convulsive weeks. At the moment, the Swedish company has not referred to this new feature publicly, either on its blog or on social networks. We will be attentive to the news.
