


Brené Brown, another popular host, soon followed, saying she would not release new episodes of her Spotify-exclusive podcast “until further notice.”ĭaniel Ek, Spotify’s chief executive, published the requisite blog post on Sunday, defending the company’s commitment to free expression and saying that “it is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor.” And while Spotify declined to take action against Mr. Rogan’s interviews with Spotify’s stated rules, which prohibit material “that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive content about Covid-19.” Two folk-rock legends, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, led the boycott, pulling their catalogs from Spotify last week in protest of the platform’s decision to support Mr.

So far, the backlash cycle is hitting most of the usual notes. Rogan had a “concerning history” of promoting falsehoods about the virus. This month, a group of hundreds of medical experts urged Spotify to crack down on Covid-19 misinformation, saying Mr. Rogan was accused of promoting Covid-19 misinformation on his show, including hosting a guest who had been barred by Twitter for spreading false information about Covid-19 vaccines. The audio giant has faced calls for weeks to take action against Joe Rogan, the mega-popular podcast host, after Mr.

Facebook and Alex Jones, Twitter and Donald Trump, YouTube and PewDiePie, Netflix and Dave Chappelle: Every major platform has found itself trapped, at some point, between this particular rock and a hard place. If this scenario sounds familiar, it’s because a version of it has occurred on every major internet media platform over the last half decade. Days later, the chief executive is forced to choose between barring a popular creator - and face the fury of his fans - or being seen as a hypocrite and an enabler of dangerous behavior. The platform’s employees threaten to walk out.
