Spotify’sDaniel Ek, Chief Executive Officer of the company has expressed his regret to employees about the Joe Rogan Podcast controversy. However, he stated that he does not intend to remove the podcaster.

He wrote, “There are not enough words to express how sorry I feel for the way The Joe Rogan Experience controversy continues impacting each of you”, in an email to staff. The note was sent to CNBC via a Spotify spokesperson.

“Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful — I want you to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company,” Ek said. “I am sure this situation has left many people feeling exhausted, frustrated and ignored.”

A video compilation featuring Rogan using N-words was shared online on Friday.

Rogan shared the video on Instagram Saturday. He called it “horrible”, and described it as the “most shameful and regretful thing” that he had ever talked about.

According to him, the video is made from clips taken out of context over 12 years of his podcast conversation.

Rogan stated, “It looks f —— terrible to even me.” Rogan said, “It looks f—— horrible to me even though it’s not permitted in any other context.” That is what I believe now. “I haven’t spoken it for years.”

Rogan admitted that he used to say the N-word instead of the word for long periods. Rogan explained that “I believed as long as the context was correct, people would understand my actions.”

Spotify removed many of Rogan’s podcast episodes over the past few days. Ek however stated that they have no plans to take Rogan off the platform.

Ek declared that, “While I strongly disagree with Joe’s statements and I support his decision to remove previous episodes from our platform,”

“And I want to make one point very clear — I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer. It is important to draw clear lines about content, and then take appropriate action if they are broken. However, cancelling voices could lead to slippery slopes.

Ek stated that Spotify would instead invest $100,000,000 in the development, licensing and marketing music and audio content from historically excluded groups.

Rogan was a famous smoker who smoked spliffs with TeslaIn 2018, Elon Musk was also charged by doctors.f repeatedly spreading conspiracy theories about Covid-19. Spotify was also criticised for hosting these episodes. It bought streaming rights for “The Joe Rogan Show” in 2019, a deal that reportedly smashed $100 million.

Last month, there were 270 doctors wrote an open letter to the streaming giant asking it to take action against Rogan’s podcast, accusing the company of broadcasting misinformation.

Recently, Joni Mitchell (a musician) and Neil Young (a podcast host), boycotted Spotify.

Rogan also apologized last week and stated that he wasn’t trying to spread misinformation or be controversial. This podcast has been a conversation-only show. I have never done anything else with it.

CNBC’s Ek said last Thursday that he was happy with how the company responded to the growing controversy surrounding Covid misinformation.