After musician Neil Young demanded that Spotify remove his music over controversial COVID-19 comments on the company’s top podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, the streaming service announced its content rules would be publicly available. In addition, the platform will flag coronavirus information. Host Joe Rogan also took to Instagram pledging to “balance things out” from now on.
Young posted to his website demanding the platform remove his music because “Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.” It followed an open letter signed by more than 200 doctors, academics, and public health officials asking for the world’s largest music streaming service to “moderate misinformation on its platform.”
The letter claimed Rogan’s podcast had “discouraged vaccination in young people and children, incorrectly claimed that mRNA vaccines are ‘gene therapy,’ promoted off-label use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 (contrary to FDA warnings), and spread several unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.”
But some stars have come to Rogan’s defense, not in supporting anti-vaccination opinions per se but in allowing alternative views to remain on the platform. For example, Howard Stern, who has publicly disagreed with Rogan’s discussions of COVID-19, weighed in on the debate: “I’m against any kind of censorship. I really am. I don’t like censorship.” He added, “I don’t want to see Joe Rogan canceled.”
Swedish-based Spotify finds itself in the difficult position of balancing free expression with charges of “misinformation.” In a released statement, the company acknowledged that it has “a critical role to play in supporting creator expression while balancing it with the safety of our users.”
Social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter have similarly struggled with claims of election interference, harm to young girls’ mental health, health misinformation, and carrying content that provokes violence offline, all being the subject of congressional hearings.
The criticisms have companies doing a delicate dance of patrolling content deemed harmful on their platforms while still promoting more free speech by their users. Spotify is different in that it doesn’t just host third-party content, but, stemming from a 2020 deal reportedly worth $100 million, it pays to host and promote Rogan’s popular podcast exclusively.
Drawing the line between harmful misinformation and healthy contrarian speech isn’t easy for companies hosting the content of social media users, artists, or star podcasters.
Rogan explained, “The problem I have with the term ‘misinformation,’ especially today, is that many of the things we thought of as misinformation just a short while ago are now accepted as fact.” He mentioned earlier cloth mask skepticism, claims that the vaccinated could still be infected and spread the COVID-19 virus, and assertions that the virus originated in a lab.
Neil Young himself is not without his provocative statements on other issues. In 2015, Young made an album, The Monsanto Years, and a short film, Seeding Fear, that included scientifically unsubstantiated claims about genetically modified crops. His lyrics alluded to GMO crops being poisonous and causing autism in children. However, the National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the World Health Organization, and the FDA have all concluded that GMOs are safe.
It won’t be easy for corporations that host content to parse out when to let contributors express controversial opinions and when to keep their audiences “safe” from contrarian views. These judgment calls are often subjective and come with legal and financial consequences. For example, Facebook claims to have 40,000 employees working on content moderation and reportedly spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year in an area in which it is still constantly criticized and in regulators’ crosshairs.
Thousands of social media users already claim to have canceled their Spotify subscriptions over the COVID-19 misinformation controversy. If more content contributors and customers follow suit, Spotify may have to rethink its current support for keeping Rogan streaming.
Rogan explained of his podcast, “My point of doing this is always just to create interesting conversations and ones that I hope people enjoy.” However, competing pressures from loyal fans and boycotting critics may determine how long he’ll get to continue.
