Facebook has been working on a Podcasts feature for some time and now it is ready to be rolled out to users. Rather, it is expected to be rolled out come 22nd June, as Facebook has not issued an official announcement regarding the Podcasts feature, but the Terms of Service are already up on the social media platform and emails obtained regarding the new feature confirm its arrival.
To that end The Verge reports that Facebook has been sending emails to prominent podcast creators and publishers, informing them that they will soon be able to link their RSS feeds to the platform. This will allow posts to be automatically generated for the News Feed, along with episodes appearing int he yet-to-be unveiled Podcasts tab in the Feed.
Along with being able to post or publish Podcasts, the feature will also allow Facebook users to share said content and create shorter audio clips.
“Facebook will be the place where people can enjoy, discuss, and share the podcasts they love with each other,” the aforementioned email informed creators.
As The Verge points, the Terms of Service for the Podcasts feature seems fairly boilerplate, but it is unclear as to what kinds of changes and controls the platform has on content uploaded to it.
“If we reasonably believe that any of your Podcast Content breaches the Facebook Terms and Policies or may cause harm to Facebook, our users, or third parties, we may remove or take down that Podcast Content in our discretion. We also respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement,” notes one of the points on the ToS regarding the removal content.
The phrase, “may cause harm to Facebook,” is quite open to interpretation. Could content that criticises the company on mistakes it makes, which we have done in the past in our own Africast, be considered harmful? Perhaps.
As such, it will be interesting to see how these Terms of Service will be enforced. For now though, it looks like the company’s plan to get into more audio content, which also includes creating a Clubhouse rival, is taking shape.
[Image – Photo by Jukka Aalho on Unsplash]
