Spotify Launches COVID-19 Content Advisory Warning Label To More Podcasts

Spotify has finally launched a content advisory warning label on more podcasts about COVID-19. (photo: doc. unsplash)

JAKARTA - After two months of being introduced, Spotify has finally launched a content advisory warning label on more podcasts discussing COVID-19.

This feature began when in January, as many as 270 doctors and scientists published an open letter to Spotify demanding that they have a misinformation policy regarding Joe Rogan's podcast.

Rogan is known to have repeatedly become a platform for false narratives about COVID-19 on his podcasts. Not long after, musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their albums from the platform in protest at Spotify's stance.

Now, Spotify has finally launched a content advisory alert on its podcasts about COVID-19. A blue bar content advisory warning label will appear above podcast episodes discussing COVID-19, prompting listeners to click through to learn more.

This content advisory feature will direct users to the COVID-19 information center, which he added in March 2020.

“On January 30, 2022, Spotify announced plans to add a content advisory to every podcast episode that includes discussions about COVID-19. "Three days later, on February 2, we launched a content advisory on our platform and we've added it to episodes that have covered discussions about COVID-19 on a rolling basis since then," a Spotify spokesperson said.

"Today, the COVID-19 content advisory appears on (more than) 1.4 million podcast episodes on our platform."

However, Spotify is fairly slow compared to other social platforms like Twitter. He acted more quickly in their efforts to combat the spread of COVID-19 misinformation.

Just days after the lockdown in the United States (US) began, Twitter banned any tweet that could help the spread of COVID-19.

Two months later, he released a COVID-19 warning on a tweet that may contain false information. Still, streaming services that compete with Spotify like Apple Podcasts don't have this caveat, though Apple Podcasts also doesn't fund podcasters who talk to far-right conspiracy theorists for fun.