Podcaster Joe Rogan apologises as Spotify responds to vaccine misinformation backlash

The podcaster Joe Rogan has apologised over accusations that he is spreading lies about Covid-19 vaccines, embroiling the streaming company Spotify in a public relations crisis.

Rogan said that his goal was to talk to people who have “different opinions”, but he admitted: “I don’t always get it right”.

Spotify and Rogan are doing damage control after the musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from its streaming service in protest at “lies” spread by Rogan. The company paid more than $100m in 2020 to bring Rogan exclusively to Spotify as it aimed to broaden beyond music. Rogan has the most popular podcast on its service.

The Swedish streaming service said it would add content advisory warnings to podcasts that discussed Covid, as it responded to growing criticism over Rogan.

Spotify has not, however, removed the December 31 episode of Rogan’s podcast that has triggered the ire of hundreds of doctors and scientists. The podcast, in which he hosted a virologist who is sceptical of mRNA Covid vaccines, did not meet the threshold for violating Spotify’s content rules, according to the company.

“I’m very sorry this is happening to [Spotify] and they’re taking so much heat for it”, Rogan said in a 10-minute post on Instagram. He said he would try to “balance things out” with “experts with differing opinions right after I have the controversial ones”.

“If I pissed you off, I’m sorry,” he said.

Spotify’s decision to keep the podcaster’s content spurred criticism online, where some social media accounts called for people to #DeleteSpotify. Twitter users last week reported that Spotify had temporarily shut down its live customer support, as users tried to cancel their accounts.

Chief executive Daniel Ek said on Sunday: “Based on the feedback over the last several weeks, it’s become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time.”

Ek outlined the steps Spotify would take to address concerns that the platform was spreading false information regarding coronavirus, including the new content advisory, which will direct listeners to a new coronavirus hub that will provide facts and information as well as links to “trusted sources”.

Spotify also published its internal rules over the content on its platform.

In addition to regulations on hate speech or harassment, the code specifies violations could include “content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health”.

Rogan has in the past invited to his podcast guests with controversial opinions on coronavirus and politics.

Rogan’s December guest, Robert Malone, who previously researched mRNA technology and is critical of its use in Covid vaccines, has been banned from Twitter and YouTube for violating their misinformation policies. On his podcast, Rogan said he was “disturbed” that Malone had been “silenced”.