Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle are causing a stir again as they have weighed in on the Spotify, Joe Rogan and Neil Young controve...
Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle are causing a stir again as they have weighed in on the Spotify, Joe Rogan and Neil Young controversy.
Last week, musician Neil Young complained about podcaster Joe Rogan spreading “misinformation” about COVID and the vaccine on his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” according to The New York Times.
Since Spotify has Rogan’s podcast on its platform, Young accused the company of “spreading fake information about vaccines — potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them.”
Young then gave Spotify an ultimatum to either pull Rogan’s podcast or get rid of his music.
“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Young wrote in a letter to his record label and management team, according to The Hill.
Following Young’s comments, Spotify made the decision to get rid of his music, as The New York Times reported.
But in the midst of accusations that Spotify is spreading misinformation about COVID, the royal couple decided to add their voice.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have already signed a $30 million deal with the music streaming giant, as TMZ reported.
The royals and Spotify have not split ways, but the couple has come out swinging with some strong comments, according to the U.K.’s Daily Mail.
“Since the inception of [their nonprofit organization] Archewell, we have worked to address the real-time global misinformation crisis,” a spokesperson for the couple said. “Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of mis- and disinformation every day.”
“Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of COVID misinformation on its platform. 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 spokesperson added.
“We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does.”
Other musicians have pulled their music from Spotify as well, in protest of the platform’s decision to keep Rogan. Joni Mitchell and Nils Lofgren joined Young in pulling their music, as TMZ reported.
“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,” Mitchell said, according to The Hill.
The royal couple has not pulled the plug on their connection with the streaming platform but is once again weighing in on the issue after allegedly being ignored by Spotify for months. But without pulling the plug on their deal, it’s not a very strong stand that they are taking.
On Sunday night, Spotify updated its content rules in response to the backlash.
“We believe achieving this mission on our platform is made possible by welcoming different forms of artistic expression, ideas, perspectives, and voices. This may mean that some content on our platform may not be to each individual’s liking or is content that Spotify endorses,” Spotify wrote in an update on its website.
“However, that doesn’t mean that anything goes on our platform. In addition to the terms that you agreed to governing your use of our services, these rules help ensure that everyone has a safe and enjoyable experience.”
An example of content “to avoid” includes “content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health.” Specifically, the platform pointed out content “asserting that AIDS, COVID-19, cancer or other serious life threatening diseases are a hoax or not real” and “promoting or suggesting that vaccines approved by local health authorities are designed to cause death” should be avoided.
“Breaking the rules may result in the violative content being removed from Spotify. Repeated or egregious violations may result in accounts being suspended and/or terminated,” the website noted.
Despite the update, Spotify has already made its position quite clear by keeping Rogan and booting Young from the platform. Clearly, Spotify does not think that it is spreading dangerous ideas simply by keeping Rogan’s podcast — or it doesn’t care.
In any case, Rogan’s podcast is too important and popular to let go of. It serves as one of the only things remaining from the woke crowd’s purge of opposing viewpoints.
No comments