Spotify has discovered itself in scorching water over considerations that its widespread podcast star Joe Rogan is spreading coronavirus misinformation, in an argument that echoes the crises confronted by Facebook and different social media giants lately.

The music streaming platform is being boycotted by legendary musicians similar to Neil Younger and Joni Mitchell, who’ve slammed its resolution to proceed internet hosting Rogan’s widespread podcast “The Joe Rogan Expertise.”

Rogan has sparked controversy with accusations that he’s repeatedly spreading conspiracy theories about Covid-19, and for selling using ivermectin — an anti-parasitic drug used primarily on animals — to deal with coronavirus signs, regardless of warnings that there isn’t any proof it may be efficient at treating Covid.

In December, 270 science and well being professionals wrote an open letter accusing Spotify of enabling Covid misinformation and calling for the corporate to introduce measures to handle false or deceptive claims in regards to the virus.

On Saturday, Nils Lofgren, guitarist for Bruce Springsteen’s E Road Band, joined the refrain of musicians pulling their music from Spotify over the Rogan controversy.

Spotify on Sunday said it might add disclaimers to any podcast episodes that embrace dialogue about Covid, and direct customers to public well being websites for extra info. CEO Daniel Ek mentioned the platform did not wish to “tackle the place of being content material censor,” however would guarantee there are penalties for creators who break its guidelines.

Rogan himself responded to the controversy late Sunday. In an Instagram publish, he criticized information shops for making a “distorted notion of what I do,” and defended his resolution to interview Dr. Robert Malone, an infectious illness specialist who was banned from Twitter for spreading Covid misinformation.

He apologized to Spotify, Younger and Mitchell, pledging to “do my finest to attempt to stability out these extra controversial viewpoints with different folks’s views.”

“If I p—-d you off, I am sorry,” he mentioned.

The debacle has parallels with the scandals which have plagued Facebook and different tech giants over time.

Fb, which is now named Meta, confronted mass boycotts from main advertisers in 2020 over criticisms that it wasn’t doing sufficient to deal with hate speech. And a data-sharing scandal in 2018 resulted in a whole lot of 1000’s of customers sharing the hashtag #deletefacebook in protest of the social networking web site.

In the meantime, YouTube handled an advertiser boycott of its personal in 2017, when a flood of manufacturers pulled promoting from the Google-owned video-sharing web site over considerations about hateful and offensive content material.

For now, the stakeholders abandoning Spotify are its creators, not advertisers. Buyers shrugged off the information Monday, with Spotify shares climbing round 1% in U.S. premarket buying and selling.

However the backlash over Rogan threatens a key space of development for the corporate, which has been pushing into podcasts during the last couple years with unique offers and acquisitions of studios.

A number of on-line platforms, together with Fb, YouTube and Twitter, have confronted criticism for failing to fight the unfold of Covid misinformation with applicable content material moderation. Lots of the firms took steps to take away such materials and add labels directing customers to info from public well being authorities.

There’s one huge distinction this time round, although: Whereas Fb and different platforms have been criticized for permitting poisonous materials shared by its customers, Spotify’s controversy is over a star that it has paid tens of millions to be the unique distributor of their podcasts. The corporate signed Rogan in 2020 in an exclusive podcasting deal reportedly price $100 million.

“The Joe Rogan Expertise” is likely one of the hottest podcasts on this planet, topping Spotify’s international rankings for 2021. Rogan beforehand claimed the present is downloaded over 200 million occasions every month.