The White House said on Tuesday that Spotify should “do more” to combat disinformation against Covid-19 in the content that is broadcast on its platform, alluding to the controversy generated by one of his most listened podcast.
The White House spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, valued Spotify’s decision to include a notice in all its content where it talks about Covid-19, but believed that this and other social networks they should be more “responsible and vigilant” in the face of misinformation about the pandemic.
“The notice (which is going to include Spotify) is a positive step, but we want all platforms to continue doing more to denounce the disinformation and manipulation of informationwhile promoting accurate information,” Psaki said at his daily news conference.
Psaki stressed that you are “16 times more likely to be hospitalized if you have not been vaccinated” against Covid-19, and “68 times more likely to die than a person who has received a third dose.”
The podcast of Joe Rogan’s controversial podcast on Spotify. Photo: capture.
“That’s pretty significant, and we think it’s something that absolutely should be the basis of how people communicate about this,” he added.
The spokeswoman thus reacted to the criticism that Spotify has received for the broadcast of the podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience”, the most popular in the United States and which is broadcast exclusively on that digital platform, after the company signed its creator in 2020 for 100 million dollars.
That program was repeatedly criticized for promote coronavirus conspiracy theories and encourage not to vaccinate, as 270 American doctors and scientists warned a few weeks ago in a letter sent to Spotify.
Neil Young and Joni Mitchell recently announced that they would be removing their music from Spotify in protest of the Rogan podcast being broadcast, with Britain’s Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, also joining in the criticism. “Since April we have signaled to Spotify that they have to correct the route,” they said.
Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell decided to remove her music from Spotify after Joe Rogan said. Photo: REUTERS.
In response, Spotify announced on Sunday that it will include a content notice on “every podcast episode that includes a discussion of Covid-19,” but has so far been unwilling to break its contract with Rogan.
The new ad, according to the streaming music platform, will direct listeners to a “Covid-19 hub” so they can access “data-driven, up-to-date information shared by scientists, doctors, academics, and public health authorities.” from around the world, as well as links to reliable sources.
“We will do our best in the future, said Spotify co-founder Daniel EK, closely followed by Joe Rogan, former comedian and since 2020 owner of the incriminated podcast, the most popular on the audio-streaming platform. From now on , on Spotify you will find a warning that will accompany each episode in which the coronavirus is discussed.
Neil Young was another of those who spoke out against the streaming music platform. Photo: REUTERS.
“The feedback we have received in recent weeks has shown us that we have an obligation to do more to provide broader and more balanced access to widely accepted information in the medical community to guide us in these unprecedented times,” Ek wrote.
A podcast that hit Spotify
The generalized reaction by the sayings of Joe Rogan put into play billions of dollars (not just the hundred million you paid for the exclusivity of the podcast) from the most popular audio platform in the world.
In fact, Spotify lost more than four billion in market value in the week of the controversy, although the bloodletting was cut at the reopening of Wall Street on Monday.
Meanwhile, the militant group Sleeping Giants, which has been leading protests against “fake news” spread by conservative VIPs for months, criticized the Ek and Rogan ads as yet another argument by the web giants.
“It’s the exact script used by Facebook, Instagram and YouTube: Do the bare minimum to protect yourself,” the group said on Twitter, noting that Spotify, unlike the others, has a problem: “Doesn’t have a monopoly”.
In fact, there are other audio platforms to go to to listen to music and podcasts: after closing the door on Spotify, Young invited his fans to the Amazon service with a special offer of four months free for all new listeners, while Apple Music was proclaimed last week as “the new home of Neil Young”.
With information from agencies.
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