2022 Protests Of Joe Rogan On Spotify

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Overview

The 2022 Protests Of Joe Rogan On Spotify refers to boycotts of the music and audio streaming platform Spotify in early 2022 over its decision to host podcaster Joe Rogan, who is accused of spreading misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccines made to help prevent serious illness from the virus. After a group of doctors and scientists petitioned Spotify to remove Rogan in late 2021 to no avail, musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from the platform in protest of Rogan's presence. This led Spotify to say they would add "content advisories" to podcasts about COVID-19.

Background

On January 12th, 2022, a group of doctors and scientists petitioned Spotify to remove Joe Rogan, whose podcast averages 11 million listeners an episode, from the platform due to him spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and the COVID vaccines. They cited^[1] that Rogan has discouraged children from getting the vaccine because the vaccine amounts to "gene therapy," touted Ivermectin as an alternative COVID-19 treatment despite the FDA warning against using the drug, and brought on guests that are accused of spreading conspiracies about the vaccine. In particular, they pointed to a December 31st, 2021, episode with Dr. Robert Malone where Malone compared vaccination efforts to the holocaust. The doctors' petition went unheeded but added to a group of growing dissent online as people canceled their Spotify subscriptions in protest.

Developments

In late January 2022, Canadian folk singer Neil Young posted an open letter giving Spotify an ultimatum, saying they could either keep Joe Rogan or him, but not both. Young ended up pulling his music from Spotify shortly after. While Rogan's supporters crowed over his apparent "victory," Young's supporters saw it as the musician taking a principled stand, as he reportedly lost 60 percent of his streaming revenue by pulling his music from Spotify.

Peter Frampton then voiced his support for Young, noting he never put his music on Spotify.^[2] Barry Manilow was rumored to be taking his music off Spotify, but Manilow himself dispelled that rumor.^[3] Joni Mitchell also decided to remove her music from Spotify, writing, "I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue."^[4] Guitarist Nils Lofgren followed suit.^[5]

As musicians pulled their music from Spotify, some on social media encouraged a mass boycott of the platform. The hashtag #cancelspotify trended on January 28th, 2022, and some users reported that Spotify was allegedly so overwhelmed with subscription cancelation requests that they would not let some users cancel their subscriptions (shown below, left).^[6] However, many #cancelspotify posts were jokes about how users were browsing the hashtag while listening to Spotify at that very moment (example shown below, right).

Spotify's Response

On January 30th, 2022, Spotify responded to the rising protests by saying it would add a content advisory to podcasts about COVID-19.^[7] The advisories will link to Spotify's fact-based COVID-19 hub. Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek wrote, "Personally, there are plenty of individuals and views on Spotify that I disagree with strongly. It is important to me that we don’t take on the position of being content censor while also making sure that there are rules in place and consequences for those who violate them."

Joe Rogan's Apology Video

On January 30th, 2022, Rogan also posted a video to his Instagram account responding to the situation (shown below). He said he welcomed Spotify adding advisories to his episodes about COVID-19. He stated, "I’m not trying to promote misinformation, I’m not trying to be controversial," Rogan said. "I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than to just talk to people." He also noted he had brought on multiple reputable doctors to his program, including Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent for CNN, and Dr. Michael Osterholm, a member of Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board.