1/30/2022- 7:37 p.m.
Spotify said Sunday that it will add an advisory to podcasts that discuss COVID-19. The announcement comes after artists Neil Young and Joni Mitchell decided to leave the streaming service due to COVID-19 misinformation on the platform.
“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,” CEO Daniel Ek wrote in a statement.
The advisory will direct listeners to its “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 around the world, as well as links to trusted sources,” Ek said. The advisory is set to be implemented around the world “in the coming days.”
On Tuesday, Young was the first to announce he was pulling his music from Spotify, saying that he did not want to be on the same platform as podcaster Joe Rogan, who has expressed skepticism over COVID-19 vaccines, said he took ivermectin after testing positive for the virus himself and recently had on a controversial guest who claimed roughly one-third of the population is “basically being hypnotized” and compared the U.S.’s pandemic response to Nazi Germany. “The Joe Rogan Experience” has an exclusive deal with Spotify.
