Following the promises at the end of January, Spotify has begun to implement its solution to tackle the disinformation on the coronavirus, through a banner that refers to shows and podcasts of reliable sources, with an attached link to the WHO.
In recent months, Spotify became involved in very heavy controversies regarding disinformation on the coronavirus and, on that occasion, promised the launch of countermeasures which, according to various sources, would have begun to materialize in the past few hours, curiously just as YouTube was leading out of It uses its own contextual information solution to stem the phenomenon of health disinformation.
In the case of the Swedish streaming platform, it is known that – in the past – the popular presenter and comedian Joe Rogan, contracted by the CEO of the platform for 200 million dollars, had tried his hand, as well as using racist terms in his broadcasts, even in the host of various no-vax voices, or in any case conspiratorial voices on the pandemic and vaccine therapies. This had led, in addition to the protests of the scientific community with lots of appeals to remedy, also to the reaction of well-known artists.
In particular, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell had requested that all their music be withdrawn from Spotify, being outraged by the space granted to Rogan: the platform, after some setbacks also on the stock market, announced in late January its intention to implement a set of contextualizing notices. Several sources, in the past few hours, have confirmed that this solution is being rolled out globally, although not in a homogeneous way, given that in some markets it would not seem (very) widespread, as found by Engadget in Canada.
Apart from the distribution issue, the solution devised by Spotify, envisaged both for its mobile client (Android, iOS) and for its desktop iteration, has materialized (also in Italy) in a bright blue banner (“Find out more about COVID-19 “) placed at the top of the broadcasts, shows and podcasts that deal with topics related to the coronavirus, Covid-19, and the pandemic that is still afflicting the world (Shanghai, for example, due to the resurgence of the Omicron variant, will be in lockdown until April 5th).
By tapping or clicking this banner – button, you will be taken to a section where, in addition to links to the World Health Organization website, there will also be shows, shows and podcasts dealing with facts independently verified and / or taken from journalistic sources. authoritative. Spotify accompanied the post accompanying the novelty by reporting that, on its platform, the context banner currently appears on 1.4 million podcast episodes.