Spotify will introduce measures to fight misinformation

(Stockholm) Accused of giving free rein to COVID-19 misinformation in its podcasts, Swedish streaming giant Spotify announced measures on Sunday to try to address the growing controversy led by the folk legend rock Neil Young.

CEO and Founder Daniel Ek announced in the evening a series of measures, including the introduction of links in all his podcasts referring to COVID-19, which will guide his users to factual and scientifically based information. A measure that will be effective “in the coming days”, he promised.

“Based on the feedback we’ve had over the past few 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,” the Swedish billionaire said in a statement.

Spotify also released its rules of use on Sunday and says it is “testing ways” to better signal to podcast creators “what is acceptable”, without openly mentioning a sanction or exclusion mechanism.

Enough to calm things down? It was Neil Young who launched the movement against the Swedish group, asking it to stop hosting the controversial, but very listened to American animator Joe Rogan, number one listening to podcasts on Spotify last year.

The latter, whose contract signed with the Swedish group last year is estimated at 100 million dollars, is accused of having discouraged vaccination among young people and of having pushed for the use of an unauthorized treatment, ivermectin, against the coronavirus.

More than 200 American health professionals had recently sounded the alarm after he had received on his show a much-loved anti-vaccine doctor, Robert Malone.

Failing to win, Neil Young had put his threat into execution this week. At first, Spotify was content to express its “regrets” about the departure of the American-Canadian star, whose gesture was applauded by the boss of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Censorship?

“Spotify has become a place for potentially deadly misinformation about COVID-19. Lies sold for money,” accused Neil Young.

The controversy continued to grow: on Friday, another cult singer with millions of subscribers, the Canadian Joni Mitchell, announced her withdrawal from the platform. At the same time, on social networks, a movement of unsubscription to Spotify was born.

Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle – who have signed an estimated $25 million deal with the platform – said on Sunday they had expressed “concerns” to Spotify over the matter.

Since its spectacular emergence from the rank of start-up from Stockholm to that of world leader listed in New York, the Swedish flagship has already been regularly criticized by artists for the sums it pays them, even if its role in the recovery of the music industry is hailed.

By growing with hundreds of millions of dollars in podcasts in recent years, the company of Daniel Ek, 38, also sees its responsibilities as a content host extend beyond music.

The new successful niche puts streaming platforms in the face of new responsibilities on disinformation, like social networks like Facebook.

Last year, Daniel Ek judged on an Axios podcast (Re:Cap) that the platform had no editorial responsibility for the content. “We also have rappers […] who make tens of millions of dollars or more every year on Spotify. And we don’t tell them what to put in their songs,” he said.

The experts interviewed recognize that the issue of content control is not simple, both from the point of view of editorial freedom and the millions of hours of content offered on a platform.

Neil Young, victim as a child of a poliomyelitis attack from which he kept the after-effects all his life, defended himself from any desire for censorship concerning COVID-19.

“I did it because deep in my heart I had no other choice,” he wrote.