THREE YEARS LATE
Spotify rolls out COVID-19 content advisory tab


A banner advertising Spotify's public trading debut hangs from the facade of the New York Stock Exchange on April 3, 2018. Spotify rolled out a new COVID-19 advisory tab on its site Monday. File Photo by Monika Graff/UPI | License Photo


March 28 (UPI) -- Spotify on Monday introduced a COVID-19 content advisory tab on podcasts, a long-awaited feature the company promised after controversy over Joe Rogan's podcast led to an exodus of entertainers from the platform.

The small blue tab on Spotify directs users to its coronavirus information hub. Rogan and Spotify had been hit with complaints that vaccine misinformation was spread on The Joe Rogan Experience.

The Spotify COVID-19 hub will lead users to authoritative sources like the World Health Organization and the National Health Service in Britain.

Musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their work from Spotify along with author Brene Brown over Rogan's COVID-19-related podcasts.

Spotify has not released a statement on the tab and the tech website Engadget said it does not appear to everyone. It said the tab did not appear on services located in Canada as of Monday.

In February, Spotify removed some 79 episodes of Rogan's podcast from 2009 and 2018, before the pandemic began. Rogan has also been criticized for using racial slurs.

He previously faced criticism for referring to transgender female MMA fighter Fallon Fox as a "man" and featuring guests including conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes, who used Rogan's show to argue that Muslim people are inbred.