Streaming platform Spotify deleted about 70 old episodes of “The Joe Rogan Experience” this Saturday (5), after presenter Joe Rogan was accused of having used racist terms in the past. In a five-minute video on Instagram, the American podcaster apologized for the lines, saying it was the “most regrettable and shameful thing” he had to publicly explain. “My most sincere and humble apologies,” Rogan stated.
The presenter himself, a staunch supporter of freedom of expression, said that some of his lines had been taken out of context, but that the content was “horrible, even for me”. “Never used [termos racistas] to be racist, because I’m not racist”, he declared. Before the videos containing racist insults came to light, Rogan was already involved in controversies because of his interviews with doctors who question the effectiveness of the vaccine against Covid-19, among them immunologist Robert Malone.
In response, a group of scientists and health professionals asked Spotify to take these episodes off the air. The company, however, decided to keep the episodes on the air, even after singers like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell took their songs off the platform in protest. Last Sunday (30), Spotify announced that all podcasts that mention Covid-19 will have links to factual, scientifically proven information about the pandemic. “We know we have a critical role to play in supporting creator freedom of expression [de conteúdo]at the same time we have to balance it with the security of our users”, wrote the CEO and one of the company’s founders, Daniel Ek, in a public letter.
The platform, however, did not comment on the episodes containing racist insults. Spotify is estimated to have shelled out more than $100 million for exclusivity on The Joe Rogan Experience, and host Joe Rogan has more viewers than Fox News and CNN.
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