Neil Young Threatens to Leave Spotify Unless They Pull Joe Rogan For ‘Spreading Fake Information About Vaccines’
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Neil Young has shared a since-deleted statement requesting that his music be removed from Spotify over Joe Rogan’s Covid-19 vaccine misinformation.
“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines—potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” Young’s letter said, according to Rolling Stone.
Young made the remarks in a letter to his management team and record label, sharing the statement publicly before deleting it.
“With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence,” he continued. “Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.”
The letter went on to demand that Spotify “know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” adding, “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Young’s statement comes after a coalition of 270 “scientists, medical professionals, professors, and science communicators” penned a letter requesting Spotify add a misinformation policy to its platform due to statements made on Rogan’s podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.
The letter followed Rogan’s interview with Dr. Robert Malone, which was largely condemned for promoting conspiracy theories regarding the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines, including “mass formation hypnosis.”
“Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Joe Rogan has repeatedly spread misleading and false claims on his podcast, provoking distrust in science and medicine,” the letter read. “He has 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 a number of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.”
While Rogan’s interview with Malone is still on Spotify, YouTube removed the episode from its platform while Twitter suspended the doctor’s account this month for breaking its guidelines on Covid-19 misinformation.
