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In January 2022, 270 medical health practitioners and researchers submitted an open letter calling on Spotify to moderate misinformation on its platform. Despite its massive popularity, the Joe Rogan Experience has been frequently criticised for promoting conspiracy theories, misinformation and other problematic content. In 2020 the podcast became a Spotify exclusive through a deal estimated at $100m. The Joe Rogan Experience podcast has the highest amount of subscribers on Spotify. Young is the first high-profile artist to condemn Spotify for its handling of COVID misinformation, but far from the first person to single out Rogan’s podcast on the platform.
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“I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform,” said Young to his management team and record label. In a letter to his management team and label, the 79-year-old rocker lambasted Spotify for spreading Rogan’s misinformation about COVID vaccinations. The company has deleted more than 40 episodes of Rogan’s podcast - which has an estimated 11 million listeners - to date.Neil Young has given Spotify an ultimatum: remove the Joe Rogan Experience podcast or Neil Young walks. Since the start of the pandemic, Spotify has removed 20,000 podcast episodes containing COVID misinformation. YouTube deleted a recording of the Rogan podcast shortly after it was uploaded to the website by a third party.
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