Over the past few days a number of brave artists have taken a valiant stand against the lies and misinformation being promoted on Spotify.
In particular, Neil Young pulled his music from the Spotify platform to protest against popular podcast host Joe Rogan, who has hosted several outspoken skeptics of vaccines for COVID-19.
Initially it appeared Young would lose the David and Goliath struggle with Spotify. Star columnist Vinay Menon wrote a great article on the battle and we agreed with his humorous, biting wit. “Joe Rogan doesn’t need Spotify. Spotify needs Joe Rogan,” wrote Menon. “Spotify doesn’t need Neil Young.”
So it looked like Young’s gambit was doomed to failure. And sure enough, Spotify decided to stick with Rogan and his podcasts containing misinformation and promptly dropped the music of the courageous Neil Young. An initial win for Spotify.
Since then, however, other artists, including Joni Mitchell, have joined the cause.
Spotify may have miscalculated. The controversy is continuing to gain momentum and the company has lost more than $2 billion in market value over the past week.
Spotify has now begun outlining steps it will take to combat COVID misinformation, making public its rules governing what content is and isn’t allowed on its platform.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said the company will add an advisory to any podcast episode that discusses COVID. “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,” he added.
Joe Rogan himself apologized, and promised to find a better balance when he invites guests to discuss COVID and vaccines.
This attempt by Spotify to quell the growing controversy is too little, too late.
Borrowing lyrics from a Neil Young song, Spotify has “one wheel in the ditch and one wheel on the track.” In other words, Spotify has a commanding global presence in music and podcasts but it needs to hold its artists accountable for lies and misinformation beyond just internal warnings.
Like other media outlets, the Toronto Star included, Spotify should be required to publicly acknowledge and correct misinformation on their platform or face costly litigation brought by all those who suffer harm from it.
In the case of misinformation about the COVID pandemic, the damages related to wrongful death would be massive and would certainly ensure that Spotify gets serious about being better.
To the extent that current legislation in Canada is not strong or clear enough to support litigation against platforms like Spotify, steps should be taken to bolster our laws.
Internet media platforms like Spotify have made untold billions of dollars in profits while promoting lies and misinformation. These platforms would do more than just initiate internal rules if they were made to be financially accountable for the damage from which they are profiting.
