Musicians India Arie and Graham Nash announced on Tuesday that they were pulling their music from Spotify, adding increased star power to a pressure campaign mounted against the streaming giant for distributing Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has dabbled in COVID-19 misinformation.
“There is a difference between being open to varying viewpoints on a matter and knowingly spreading false information which some 270 medical professionals have derided as not only false but dangerous … The opinions publicized by Rogan are so dishonest and unsupported by solid facts that Spotify becomes an enabler in a way that costs people their lives,” Nash said in a statement.
Legendary singer-songwriter Neil Young initiated the protest last week and was soon joined by Joni Mithcell and Nils Lofgren. The hashtag “#spotifydeleted” trended on social media.
In a since deleted open-letter published to his website, Young explained, “I am doing this because Spotify is spreading false information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.”
Rogan has been a COVID-19 contrarian for months, suggesting on his extremely popular podcast that young people shouldn’t be vaccinated and that mask wearing is ineffective.
In December, 270 medical professionals wrote an open letter chastising Rogan’s interview with Dr. Robert Malone, who the BBC describes as “a virologist who worked on early research into the mRNA technology behind several Covid-19 vaccines, but who is now critical of the treatments.”
Over the weekend, Spotify responded to the controversy. CNN explains:
Spotify said it is adding a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes discussion about Covid-19. The advisory will direct listeners to a Covid-19 hub that will include links to trusted sources, the company said.
Spotify will also for the first time publicly post its long-standing Platform Rules, which were originally developed by its internal team.
“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 guiding us through this unprecedented time,” Spotify CEO and co-founder Daniel Ek said in a statement.
Rogan expressed a measure of self-doubt on Instagram on Sunday, presenting himself as a regular guy who is simply sharing his “opinions.”
“I do not know if they’re 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. Do I get things wrong? Absolutely. I get things wrong. But I try to correct them. … I’m interested in telling the truth. I’m interested in finding out what the truth is.”
NPR reports:
In Rogan’s Instagram video Sunday, the popular podcast host said that he views this as a time to present more experts — and maybe do a little more research about his guests and what they were saying.
“Maybe try harder to get people with differing opinions on right afterwards — I do think that’s important,” Rogan said. “And do my best to make sure I’ve researched these topics, the controversial ones in particular, and have all the pertinent facts at hand before I discuss them.”
For her part, Arie said her decision to pull her music in protest of Rogan is about more than just COVID-19 misinformation.
“Neil Young opened a door that I must walk through,” Arie wrote on Instagram. “I believe in freedom of speech. However, I find Joe Rogan problematic for reasons other than his Covid interviews. For me, it’s also his language around race.”
Bloomberg explains:
Rogan, 54, was criticized last month after his interview with Jordan Peterson, a conservative YouTube personality. In that conversation, Rogan said it’s “very strange” that anyone would call themselves Black unless they’re from the “darkest place” of Africa.
