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January 1, White House Urges Spotify to Take Further Action on Joe Rogan

Published

2 years ago

February 4, 2022

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that Spotify should do more to address COVID-19 misinformation.

At her daily press briefing, Psaki was asked about Spotify’s decision to add disclaimers to podcast episodes about the coronavirus amid the ongoing controversy over Joe Rogan’s podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.

Psaki responded by saying the administration hopes that “all major tech platforms and all major news sources” exercise vigilance when it comes to information on the coronavirus. She said the disclaimer is a “positive step,” but the White House wants every platform to “do more” to call out “misinformation.”

“Ultimately our view is that it’s a good step, it’s a positive step, but there’s more that can be done,” Psaki said.

The White House called on platforms to be ‘responsible and vigilant’ in mitigating COVID-19 misinformation in response to the controversy over Joe Rogan’s podcast on Spotify pic.twitter.com/4i5yBrNq8J
— NowThis Impact (@nowthisimpact) February 2, 2022

Her comments come as multiple musical artists removed their music from Spotify to protest Rogan’s episodes about the coronavirus pandemic and vaccines. Rogan has previously suggested that young Americans aren’t at risk and don’t need a vaccine, but he’s also said, “I’m not an anti-vax person. I believe they’re safe and encourage many people to take them.”

Rogan addressed the controversy in a video posted to his Instagram account.

“If there’s anything that I’ve done that I can do better is have more experts with differing opinions, right after I have the controversial ones,” he said. “I would most certainly be open to doing that. I would like to talk to some people that have differing opinions on those podcasts in the future. We’ll see.”

He went on to say that while he schedules his guests, he does not “always get it right.”

Rogan also noted that his intention with the show has always been “to create interesting conversations and ones that I hope people enjoy,” adding, “I’m not trying to promote misinformation, I’m not trying to be controversial. I’ve never tried to do anything with this podcast other than to just talk to people.”