Canadian-American singer-songwriter Neil Young gave Spotify an ultimatum in an open Jan. 24 letter posted on his personal website: either the company removes The Joe Rogan Experience podcast hosted by the comedian Joe Rogan for coronavirus misinformation, or Young removes his repertoire.
Two days later, Young’s entire solo discography including “Harvest Moon” and “Heart of Gold” disappeared from the music platform.
Young is not the only one questioning the potential danger caused by The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. On Jan. 10, more than 200 doctors, scientists, and healthcare professionals signed an open letter to report “false and societally harmful assertions” from the episode released on Dec. 31 in which Rogan interviewed Dr. Robert Malone.
“JRE [The Joe Rogan Experience] #1757 is not the only transgression to occur on the Spotify platform, but a relevant example of the platform’s failure to mitigate the damage it is causing,” stated healthcare professionals in the open letter.
Dr. Malone is a virologist who’s defended disputed claims saying vaccines put people previously infected with the COVID-19 virus at higher risks of adverse side effects. The virologist said world leaders “hypnotized” the public into supporting vaccines.
With a non proven theory called “mass formation psychosis”, he compared the rise of the Nazi Party in 1930s Germany with the pandemic regulations.
“They had a highly intelligent, highly educated population, and they went barking mad,” said Dr. Malone to describe mass formation psychosis. “And this is what’s happened here,” he said referring to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Twitter banned Dr. Malone for misinformation on Dec. 29, and four days later Youtube removed the podcast episode.
Doctors and scientists who signed the open letter asked Spotify officials to react to Rogan’s COVID-19 episodes by improving their rules regarding misinformation and creating an easier way to flag baseless claims.
It’s concerning that Spotify didn’t think it was necessary to react to this open letter before Young posted his ultimatum.
This is not the first time Rogan and his guests have been accused of spreading false information about the COVID-19 virus. Rogan said “young and healthy people don’t need COVID-19 vaccines” and has promoted ineffective and dangerous treatments such as ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug used for livestock.
“But if you're like 21 years old, and you say to me, should I get vaccinated? I'll go ‘no,’” Rogan said in an April 28 episode of the podcast. “If you're a healthy person, and you're exercising all the time, and you're young, and you're eating well, like, I don't think you need to worry about this."
According to data released by Washington State Department of Health on Jan. 26, unvaccinated 12-34 years old are 12 times more likely to be hospitalized with the COVID-19 virus than those who are fully vaccinated.
A company reaction is unlikely because Spotify reportedly paid $100 million in May 2020 for rights to The Joe Rogan Experience podcast according to an estimation made by The Wall Street Journal in a May 19, 2020 article. It’s the platform’s top podcast with around 200 million downloads a month according to Rogan.
On Jan. 26, Spotify stated that the company has removed 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.
"We want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators," the company stated.
Young wrote in a Jan. 26 letter posted on his personal website that 60% of his music streams come from Spotify but his beliefs surpassed any of his monetary gain from the music platform.
"Losing 60% of worldwide streaming income by leaving Spotify is a very big deal," Young said. "[It was] a costly move, but worth it for our integrity and our beliefs. Misinformation about [COVID-19] is over the line."
Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell said on her personal website that she will follow Young’s suit and pull her music from Spotify.
“Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives,” Mitchell stated on Friday.
After controversies erupted regarding the spread of COVID-19 misinformation on platforms including Twitter and Youtube, the spotlight is now on podcasts. However, compared to written or visual posts it’s harder to track falsehood in audio format. The host’s voice is in listeners’ ears and information is received as soon as it’s delivered, with no time to provide a disclaimer to the audience.
The Joe Rogan controversy is more than just a debate about free speech; it reveals the influence artists still have on streaming services. Yes, Spotify didn’t follow Young and Mitchell’s ultimatum, but their choices pushed the company to take some steps to prevent dangerous claims from spreading on its audio streaming service.
Spotify’s chief executive Daniel Ek said in a Sunday news release that Spotify will issue a “content advisory” for any podcast episode that includes a discussion about the COVID-19 virus. It will direct listeners to a “COVID-19 hub” with links to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and trusted news sources.
For the first time, Spotify published all of its long-standing platform rules on Sunday, including its commitment to ban content that promotes “dangerous and false information.”
Currently Rogan’s episode with Dr. Malone remains available on Spotify.
Rogan responded to the controversy during his podcast in a video published on his Instagram Sunday evening.
He said that he was not spreading misinformation and that there is “a distorted perception” of what he does on his show.
“I do not know [if guests] are right,” Rogan said. “I'm not a doctor. I'm not a scientist. I'm just a person who sits down and talks to people and has conversations with them.”
