It’s about misleading information about the corona virus – and about what should actually be said and who should be heard. Many celebrities express their displeasure with a podcast. Now Spotify is responding to the criticism.
Stockholm/Los Angeles – World stars against streaming giants: The musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell fight with all their weight against corona “lies”, which they believe are spread in a popular Spotify podcast.
It’s a protest even the streaming company can’t ignore. The criticized podcaster Joe Rogan meanwhile speaks up himself – and admits mistakes.
Joe Rogan admits mistakes
In a 10-minute Instagram video, the 54-year-old US presenter said of his critics: “I’m very sorry that you feel this way, it’s definitely not what I want. I’m a huge Neil Young fan.” Of his own show, he said, “I plan everything myself and I don’t always get it right.”
In addition, the moderator agreed that the Spotify streaming service would like to add a note to posts about Covid-19 in the future. Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek announced the move in a blog post on Sunday.
In the future, the streaming service wants to provide all posts about Corona with a note that should lead to scientifically sound information from reliable sources. The new initiative against misinformation will be implemented worldwide in the coming days, said Ek.
Speaking about the concept of his podcast, Joe Rogan said: “It’s not my intention to spread misinformation or be controversial. I didn’t try anything else with the podcast other than talking to people and having interesting conversations. ”He wants to have more balance in the future and also show others in addition to the controversial opinions. He also wanted to prepare better for the interviews.
Protest against misinformation about Corona
Several artists, including Neil Young (76/”Heart of Gold”) and Joni Mitchell (78/”Big Yellow Taxi”), had previously announced that they would withdraw their music from Spotify. They were protesting against the US moderator’s podcast, which was also criticized by numerous scientists as playing it down. They also received support from other celebrities. Young had long campaigned for the corona vaccination, among other things. As a young boy, according to his autobiography, he suffered from the infectious disease polio before the vaccine against it was widely available.
According to a statement by the Swedish streaming service, Spotify wants to make all music and audio content accessible to its users. The company has a comprehensive content policy and has removed more than 20,000 Corona-related podcast episodes since the pandemic began.
Rogan offers extremists a platform
Joe Rogan rose to prominence as an actor and comedian and has hosted The Joe Rogan Experience podcast since 2009. It’s currently the most-listened-to podcast on Spotify, with Rogan consistently making headlines with controversial and controversial statements. He had made disparaging comments about vaccinations for children and young people, continued to praise alleged corona drugs even after explicit warnings from doctors and made false statements about the ingredients of vaccines. When guests in his podcast made false statements about the pandemic – or other topics such as climate change – Rogan often didn’t correct them or follow up. Rogan has been criticized for making offensive comments about trans people and for inviting far-right extremists to his show.
Although they are initially sticking to their collaboration with Spotify, Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry also expressed criticism. “We have continued to raise our concerns with Spotify to ensure changes are made to its platform to help address this public health crisis,” the statement said. The couple, who gave up their royal duties almost two years ago, signed a million dollar contract for the production of podcasts with the streaming platform at the end of 2020. dpa
