Podcaster Joe Rogan has vowed “do my best in the future to balance things out” amid an ongoing controversy that his deal with Spotify helps spread Covid misinformation.
The platform found itself under fire after singers Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music over his podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, which has aired repeated Covid conspiracy theories.
On Sunday, Spotify’s chief executive Daniel Ek issued a statement to say it will add a content note directing listeners to Covid facts on any podcast which discusses the virus.
Spotify’s rules for creators have also been made public for the first time, telling users that posting “dangerous content” which “promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health” is banned.
Rogan, 54, posted a lengthy Instagram video Sunday responding to the controversy, telling fans that a lot of people “have a distorted perception of what I do”.
Guests on his show have promoted the use of ivermectin to treat Covid symptoms – an anti-parasitic medicine used mainly on horses which has not been proven to be effective for treating coronavirus.
Rogan told fans he thought the controversy mainly flowed from interviews with vaccine sceptics Robert Malone and Peter McCullough.
He said: “If there’s anything that I’ve done that I could do better, it’s having more experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones.
“I would most certainly be open to doing that.”
Musician Neil Young last week directed to have all of his music removed from Spotify, explicitly citing Joe Rogan’s “false information about vaccines” as a reason.
Young said: “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 … They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Fans of the 76-year-old singer have since pointed out that he suffered from polio as a child due to there being no vaccine at the time of his birth.
Following Young’s exit from Spotify, fellow musician Joni Mitchell followed suit, saying it was in “solidarity” with him.
The stand-up comedian, who has previously courted controversy by suggesting young and healthy people should not get the jab, said he was a fan of both musicians and he was “sorry they feel that way”.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were also among those “expressing concerns” to Spotify about Covid-19 misinformation but said they will continue to work with the platform.
The couple signed a lucrative deal with the streaming giant to host and produce podcasts, estimated to be worth around 25 million US dollars (£18 million), in late 2020.
In a statement on Sunday, the couple’s charity Archewell said: “Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of rampant mis- and disinformation every day.
“Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of Covid-19 misinformation on its platform.
“We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis.”
Spotify acquired The Joe Rogan Experience podcast in 2020, reportedly for more than 100 million dollars (£77 million).
