Prince Harry And Meghan Markle Have “Addressed Concern” To Spotify Over COVID Misinformation, And Joe Rogan Has Commented On The Situation

January 31, 2022 / Posted by:

It’s not exactly the greatest time to be a member of the Spotify customer service support team right now. Rock icon Neil Young decided he’d officially had enough of Joe Rogan’s unrestrained ability to spread COVID-19 misinformation on his podcast platform, so Neil requested that his music be pulled from the streaming site (Spotify obliged by pulling all of Neil’s solo work). The legendary Joni Mitchell followed Neil by protesting Spotify’s choice to promote “irresponsible people spreading lies” and had her music wiped from the platform as well. Well, Spotify recently found themselves squaring off against two more unhappy famous people that were pissed off enough to…contact Spotify with their complaints! Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have a multi-year podcast deal with Spotify, but they recently let it be known that they too have voiced their concern about the misinformation spread on the platform. And maybe enough people with legitimate credibility have spoken up because Spotify says they’ll be adding COVID warnings, while Joe Rogan has apologized to Spotify for the backlash.

Harry and Meghan, who are finally starting to get to work on that Archewell Audio podcast that was teased all the way back in 2020, released a statement on Sunday telling everyone that they weren’t crazy about the amount of audible BS that was coming from certain creators belonging to the Spotify family. People might be wondering why Harry and Meghan didn’t just pull a Neil or a Joni and tell Spotify to toss their contract in the shredder and move to another podcasting platform. But Harry and Meghan have been bothering Spotify about certain podcast content for nearly a year now, so virtue-signaling bandwagon jumpers they are not. via People magazine:

“Since the inception of Archewell, we have worked to address the real-time global misinformation crisis. Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of rampant mis- and disinformation every day,” the statement began.

“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,” the statement added. “We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis.”

The statement ends with Harry and Meghan challenging Spotify to “meet this moment,” adding that they are committed to working with Spotify on this issue. They might not have to pull too many all-nighters on this issue, because Spotify has heard everyone loud and clear, and they believe they have a solution to their problem. Spotify will add a disclaimer to any episode that involves talk about COVID-19. via CNN Business:

Spotify said it is adding a content advisory to any podcast episode that includes discussion about Covid-19. The advisory will direct listeners to a Covid-19 hub that will include links to trusted sources, the company said.

Spotify will also for the first time publicly post its long-standing Platform Rules, which were originally developed by its internal team.

“It’s become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely-accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time,” CEO and Co-Founder Daniel Ek said.

So basically, it’s a barrier as strong and impenetrable as those PARENTAL ADVISORY WARNING stickers on CDs from the 90s. I’m sure not one fan of The Joe Rogan Experience will pay much attention.

Joe Rogan himself decided to address the situation on Instagram. And fuck a Spotify warning, Joe has zero plans to change any of the content in his podcast. But, he is sorry that the people who cut his paycheck have had to go through it over the past week or so.

Joe notes that he doesn’t have time to fact-check the information he puts out there because he’s recording each episode on the fly and it’s all coming off the top of his head. He says that the nature of the casual conversations is what his listeners like, so he’s sticking with it. He also says he isn’t doing anything but pushing a narrative outside of the “mainstream media,” because he wants to hear the alternative opinion. Joe Rogan really needs to hire Dakota Johnson to sit in on those podcast recordings. Every time he says something that hasn’t been double-checked, she can double-check him by saying, “Actually no, that’s not the truth, Joe.” Except I don’t see his podcast lasting much more than one episode after that. Dakota Johnson calmly calling out your bullshit is enough to destroy your self-esteem for years.

Pic: Wenn.com

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