Spotify releases content advisory for COVID-19 discussion; mulls over highlighting ‘acceptable content’ mandate in creator publisher tools

With new variants of COVID-19 emerging every passing year, the uncertainty around the situation getting back to normal keeps hovering. With the tumultuous COVID-19 threat, social media platforms have taken it upon themselves to continue spreading awareness around the policies and dictates of certain discussions online.

In a bid to sound transparent and clear, Spotify recently announced a fresh set of guidelines and platform policies. In an official blog, the company shared that the consumers had a lot of questions over the last few days about the platform policies and the lines it has drawn between what is acceptable and what is not.

“We have had rules in place for many years but admittedly, we haven’t been transparent around the policies that guide our content more broadly. This, in turn, led to questions around their application to serious issues including COVID-19,” says Daniel Ek, CEO, Spotify.

Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, here is what Spotify’s up to:

Publishing Platform Rules

These policies were developed by Spotify’s internal team in concert with a number of outside experts and are updated regularly to reflect the changing safety landscape. These are rules of the road to guide all of our creators—from those the platform works with exclusively to those whose work is shared across multiple platforms.

Users can now find them on the newsroom, and they’ll live permanently on the main Spotify website. They are being localized into various languages to help the users understand how Spotify assesses all content on the platform.

Working to add a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about COVID-19

This advisory will direct listeners to Spotify’s dedicated 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.

This new effort to combat misinformation will roll out to countries around the world in the coming days. Spotify claims that this content advisory is the first of its kind by a major podcast platform.

In the hindsight, the audio platform is also testing ways to highlight the Platform Rules in its creator and publisher tools to raise awareness around what’s acceptable and help creators understand their accountability for the content they post on Spotify. This is in addition to the terms that creators and publishers agree to govern their use of the platform services.

Daniel further shares, “I trust our policies, the research and expertise that inform their development, and our aspiration to apply them in a way that allows for broad debate and discussion, within the lines. We take this seriously and will continue to partner with experts and invest heavily in our platform functionality and product capabilities for the benefit of creators and listeners alike. That doesn’t mean that we always get it right, but we are committed to learning, growing, and evolving,” he concludes.

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