Rogan himself, in a video posted on Instagram on Sunday, defended his decision to invite guests such as Robert Malone, a scientist and physician whose positions questioning the safety and efficacy of mRNA vaccines have been criticized by medical experts.īut he said he would try to do better and “balance” out controversial guests by bringing on experts more in line with the mainstream scientific consensus on vaccinations. But the misinformation that gets bandied about on Rogan’s show is typically more subtle than that. Spotify said it won’t allow creators to claim that COVID-19 is a hoax or that the vaccines were “designed to cause death.” It won’t let hosts encourage listeners to drink bleach as a remedy or call for so-called COVID parties. It’s unclear whether Spotify’s response will be enough to quell the turmoil and relieve pressure on other artists to act.Įk’s statement and the disclosure of Spotify’s content moderation policies may not satisfy the most ardent critics, as they appear to set a relatively high bar for what would be considered unacceptable misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines.Īs former Billboard editorial director Bill Werde put it on Twitter, “ Eh, it’s a start.” The company agreed to publish its “platform rules” and add content advisories to episodes that discuss COVID-19, though it appeared to set a high bar for what it considers misinformation. Its difficult to know how such musical artists leaving Spotify will affect it, but there have already been others, including Youngs former Crazy Horse. The exit of Young and Mitchell was enough to get Spotify Chief Executive Daniel Ek to release a lengthy statement on Spotify’s “critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users.” He didn’t mention Rogan by name. Fellow Canadian rocker and polio survivor Joni Mitchell followed suit in solidarity (the friends share the same manager and record label). When Neil Young pulled his music from the Swedish streamer over its airing of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” he invited others to join him. For those following certain parts of Twitter during the last week, it would have been easy to come away with the impression that Spotify was facing a mass exodus of artists protesting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on Joe Rogan’s immensely popular podcast.
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