Spotify changes its COVID-19 strategy. All because of the musicians’ reaction to the controversial podcast

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said in a statement posted on the site’s website that the alerts would send users back to the Covid-19 datacenter.

Spotify boss: we have a responsibility to do more

The decision is due to the recent controversy surrounding the Joe Rogan podcast, the most popular show on Spotify. In December, the guest of the podcast was Dr. Robert Malone, an infectious disease specialist who has been criticized by doctors and scientists for spreading misinformation about Covid-19 and the vaccines against the disease. At the beginning of the week .

Interestingly, Spotify first complied with the musician’s request instead of doing something with the podcast. But then apparently someone had gone to their senses. Perhaps the heads of the platform have read their own rules. According to Spotify’s policy, creators should avoid publishing content that “promotes dangerous false or misleading medical information that may cause harm or pose an immediate threat to public health.”

Ek wrote in a statement that it had become clear to him that Spotify had a responsibility “to do more to ensure balance and to access generally accepted information from the medical and scientific community.”

Let us add that in a video response to the words of Young and Mitchell, published on Instagram, Rogan replied to the allegations of spreading disinformation against him, but considered placing warnings at the beginning of the controversial episodes as a good idea. A group of 270 American doctors, scientists, healthcare professionals and academics wrote to Spotify a few weeks earlier about his podcast. According to the Guardian, the letter asked to “establish a clear and transparent policy to moderate disinformation on the platform”.

At the end of 2020, Rogan agreed to transfer his podcast exclusively to Spotify under a $ 100 million contract with Spotify.

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