Spotify found itself in the middle of trouble Misinformation about COVID-19.
Last week, rocker Neil Young withdrew his music from Spotify, the world’s largest subscriber music streaming service, amid objections to fake allegations of COVID-19 vaccines in Rogan’s popular podcast. Comedian podcast available exclusively in Spotify through a $ 100 million deal, has hosted a number of influential people with misinformation. COVID-19 vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective against serious illness, hospitalization and death.
A handful of musicians – including folk icon Johnny Mitchell – have joined Young, saying they will download their music from Spotify. So far, however today’s top performers did not take part in the protest.
On Sunday, Spotify CEO Daniel Eck said the company planned to be more transparent about its disinformation rules, but will not be “content censorship”. Rogan also responded to the dispute by saying he plans to do better.
The boycott of the musicians is coming, as Spotify is due to announce the results for the end of 2021 on Wednesday.
Here’s what you need to know about the issues and what Spotify plans to change.
How did this boycott of Spotify begin?
Neil Young began the protest when he wrote a letter saying that Spotify could have either his music or Joe Rogan, but not both.
“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” Young wrote in a letter to his manager and record company, announced by Rolling Stone on January 24. “I’m doing this because Spotify is spreading false information about vaccines – potentially causing the deaths of those who believe the misinformation is spreading.”
Young cites an open letter originally signed by more than 250 medical professionals, professors and researchers who called on Spotify to address COVID’s disinformation on its platform, specifically mentioning Rogan’s podcast. More than 1,000 professionals have signed the letter since the letter was published on January 12th.
Young’s music was removed from the streaming service on January 27.
Johnny Mitchell followed Young on Saturday, saying in a letter on his website that he would remove his music from Spotify.
Other artists joining Young and Mitchell include:
Some Spotify users also joined the protest by canceling their subscriptions to the service after Young downloaded his music and hashtag. #DeleteSpotify was on trend on social media on January 28th. Some tweeted that they failed to send a live message to a customer service agent when trying to cancel their service.
A person familiar with the matter said that Spotify’s customer support works as usual, with live agents available to respond. CNET checks on the support page received quick answers to cancellation questions from both his bot and a human agent. The bot responded immediately and the wait for a chat with a human was less than five minutes.
How did Spotify respond?
Following the musicians’ protest, Spotify CEO Daniel Eck responded in a blog post on January 30, saying his company did not want to be a “content censor” but would make its rules easy to find and that there were consequences. to spread misinformation. He acknowledged that Spotify was not transparent to them, leading to questions about their application to serious issues, including COVID-19.
“Based on the feedback over the last few weeks, it has become clear to me that we have a responsibility to do more to ensure balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities that leads us through this unprecedented time,” Eck said.
The post included a link to the Spotify platform rules, which detail what content is not allowed on the service. As for misinformation about COVID, the rules explicitly forbid saying that COVID-19 is unrealistic, encouraging the consumption of bleach to treat diseases, saying that vaccines lead to death, and assuming that people become infected to build immunity.
Eck also said the company is working on content tips for each podcast episode that talks about COVID. The council will direct listeners to the COVID-19 service center.
The White House has joined in the Spotify campaign to add warnings to podcast episodes. At a press briefing on Tuesday, spokeswoman Jen Psaki was asked if technology companies should go beyond these disclaimers.
“We hope that all major technology platforms and all major news sources on this issue will be responsible and vigilant to ensure that the American people have access to accurate information on something as important as COVID-19. That certainly includes Spotify, “Psaki said. “So this disclaimer is a positive step, but we want each platform to continue to do more to provoke misinformation and misinformation, while increasing accurate information.”
Psaki also referred to a warning from General Surgeon Dr. Vivek Dead last July about the dangers of a disinformation call, calling it an “urgent threat.”
What does Rogan have to say?
Rogan took to Instagram on January 30 to talk about criticism of him and his show. In the video, he defended his choice to attract guests such as Dr. Robert Malone, an infectious disease specialist who was banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Malone, a staunch opponent of vaccines, appeared in The Joe Rogan Experience on December 31 and compared the current state of the pandemic to Nazi Germany. He then suggested that people who take precautions against COVID-19 suffer from the so-calledmass-forming psychosis“, A medical-sounding phrase that has been discredited by psychology experts.
The public health agencies have made it clear that COVID-19 vaccines are very effective in reducing the effects of coronavirus and that other public health measures such as camouflage and social distancing have helped to slow the spread of COVID-19. The dangers of the disease are clear: there are currently more than 381 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide and more than 5.6 million deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.
Rogan said he was happy for Spotify to add disclaimers to podcasts on what he called “controversial” topics. He added that if he could do something different, it would be to get experts with different opinions right after the “controversial ones”.
At the end of his video, Rogan said he had no unpleasant feelings for Young and Mitchell.