Joni Mitchell joins Neil Young in Spotify ban over Joe Rogan Covid-19 vaccine stance
The flower power era icon joins Neil Young in pulling out of Spotify amid ‘misinformation’ by the world’s most popular podcast.
An icon of the flower power era, songstress Joni Mitchell, has joined veteran rocker Neil Young in pulling their music from distribution giant Spotify, in protest against the world’s most popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience, accused of spreading misinformation about Covid-19 vaccines.
Ms Mitchel said she “stood in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific community” on Friday, days after Spotify removed Neil Young’s back catalogue after the Heart of Gold singer said he couldn’t share a platform that showcased Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has become a touchstone in the growing debate about online misinformation.
“Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives,” the 78-year-old Mitchell said in a statement.
The two ageing boomer stars, both Canadian, have spearheaded a push to boycott the Sweden-based audio streaming service, whose share price has fallen around 10 per cent since Young presented his ultimatum earlier this week, until it dumps Rogan’s podcast,
“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” Mr Young said, declaring Spotify “the home of life-threatening Covid misinformation”.
Barry Manilow on Friday was forced to shut down rumours the Copacabana singer was set to join the Canadian duo, amid calls for Dolly Parton and other singers to do the same.
“I don’t know where it started, but it didn’t start with me or anyone who represents me,” Manilow said in a statement on Twitter.
Joe Rogan, a 54-year-old former comedian, has built an average following of 11 million listeners each episode, which typically entails two-hour plus, unedited interviews with experts and celebrities.
In recent months Mr Rogan has hosted doctors who oppose compulsory vaccination, question whether vaccination against Covid-19 passes a cost benefit test for young adults, and argue effective treatments for Covid-19, such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, have been ignored to boost profits for vaccine manufacturers.
“If you’re a healthy person, and you’re exercising all the time, and you’re young, and you’re eating well, like, I don’t think you need to worry about [getting vaccinated],” Rogan has said recently, drawing condemnation from health experts.
A group of 270 scientists and healthcare professionals signed an open letter to Spotify earlier this month accusing Rogan of “promoting baseless conspiracy theories” and asking the service to take action against mass-misinformation events on its platform.
Attacks on the podcast intensified over the last month, after Rogan interviewed Texan cardiologist Peter McCullough, who said Covid-19 vaccines had injured or killed thousands of people in the US, based on the US government’s VAERS data base.
US health officials say the database is unreliable because it’s not possible to monitor the veracity of the injury reports.
He also interviewed Robert Malone, a virologist involved in the development of Mrna vaccine technology who claimed nations were exhibiting signs of “mass formation psychosis”, or hysterical, irrational behaviour that was driving health response.
Spotify said it “balanced both safety for listeners and freedom for creators”. “We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic,” the company said in a statement.
Young’s move earlier this week has prompted another wave of debate about social media’s role in policing right and wrong during the pandemic, two weeks after President Joe Biden called on social media companies to do more.
“Please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that’s on your shows. It has to stop,” the President said at a January press conference.
Chelsea Clinton, the former president’s daughter, took aim at online publishing website Substack this week for “facilitating science denialists’ ability to profit from destructive lies (and comfortable profiting themselves)”.
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