By Ashley Young-
Joe Rogan did not violate spotify’s rules. That was the implication of the podcast’s ruling on Monday. Neil Young and other musicians pulled their music from the platform nearly two weeks ago over their belief that Rogan and his guests spread COVID-19 misinformation.
Spotify’s statement that controversial podcaster, Joe Rogan did not break its rule was not a welcome one for many of the complainants that made their voices known to the podcaster. The podcaster said that it would only take moderation actions against content that violated its rules — rules that were not public until The Verge first reported on them, and then which Spotify itself published days later.
Spotify boss Daniel Ek has said that although he condemns racial slurs and other comments made by US podcast host Joe Rogan, but that he would not be removing him from the platform.
Rogan apologized after a widely-shared compilation video showed him repeatedly using the N-word in early episodes of his show, which has been running for over a decade. The 54-year offered his “deepest” apologies and called his past use of the slur “shameful”.
Artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell recently quit Spotify in protest at what they allege is Rogan’s role in spreading coronavirus misinformation.
Rogan features a wide variety of guests tom participate on his podcast and express a range of issues on diverse topics.. Some views expressed have sparked controversy, leading to a number of people to call for him to be dropped.
Much of the controversy regards two recent episodes of Rogan’s podcast, which featured the cardiologist Dr Peter McCullough and immunologist/virologist Dr Robert Malone.
Malone, one of those credited for creating the vaccine has since been critical of its reliability, insisting that insufficient time was given to learn enough about it. He criticized the idea that vaccines should be given to children, dismissing extensive trials that various scientists in different countries claim to have conducted about their relative safety.
Malone insists the American public were hypnotized into accepting the vaccine, leading to his youtube channel being closed down, but walking straight into another open door on the Joe Rogan Podcast where he expressed himself uncensored. His comments offended many people who accused him of spreading misinformation.
Rogan denied trying to spread misinformation. In a lengthy video, Rogan addressed the situation, telling his followers that he thinks “a lot of people had a distorted perception of what I do”.
“[My] podcast has been accused of spreading dangerous misinformation, specifically about two episodes,” he said, adding: “I’m not trying to promote misinformation. I’m not trying to be controversial. I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations.”
That Spotify was paying $100 million to exclusively distribute The Joe Rogan Experience should not change anything, according to CEO Daniel Ek, who directly addressed that relationship in an internal town hall last week:
Ek said the rules were the rules and Spotify would not “change our policies based on one creator nor do we change it based on any media cycle or calls from anyone else.