Spotify condemns racist insults on Joe Rogan's anti-vaccine 'podcast', but won't cancel his show

The American broadcaster Joe Rogan, in December of last year in Las Vegas (Nevada, United States). CARMEN MANDATE (AFP)

Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek on Sunday "strongly" condemned racist slurs and other comments made by popular American broadcaster Joe Rogan, but said he will not withdraw his show from the popular

on-demand music and

platform. .

Ek's comments, collected in a letter sent to company staff to which the Reuters agency has had access, come after Rogan issued an apology for the second time in a week, the last for making racist insults after being broadcast a montage on the internet in which he is seen repeatedly using the word

(black, in Spanish)

a derogatory and offensive term to refer to blacks.

Rogan, known for fueling anti-vaccine theories and coronavirus deniers, argued in his apology that he appears in the montage using the racist epithet for the past 12 years, but included examples in which he discussed the use of the term with black and white comedians.

Ek affirms in the letter that it was Rogan's decision to eliminate a series of old episodes of

- those that contained the most offensive parts -, after he had several conversations with Spotify executives and his own reflections on a part of the show's content, in which he has repeatedly used racist language.

"While I strongly condemn what Joe has said... I want to make one point very clear: I don't think silencing Joe is the answer," Ek defends in the text.

Spotify's CEO reiterated his position on the company's content moderation policies, saying he believes there should be clear limits around what shows are released. According to Ek, the company must take action when boundaries are crossed, but canceling programs is a dangerous, slippery slope of sorts. In addition to racist insults, Joe Rogan's programs are also known for their denialist and anti-vaccine point of view, giving rise to hoaxes and conspiracy theories of all kinds about the coronavirus. Rogan was signed by Spotify in 2020 for $100 million and has since made frequent false comments about vaccines and covid-19.

Rogan's program has sparked a revolt of various musicians and personalities against Spotify in recent weeks.

The first to threaten the company with removing his music if it did not remove the denier and anti-vaccine

from the platform was Neil Young, who kept his promise and removed all his songs from the technology.

"I hope that other artists do the same and leave Spotify," prompted the Canadian.

A classmate, Joni Mitchell (Alberta, Canada, 78 years old), followed him.

“Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing lives.

All my support and solidarity with Neil Young and the scientific and medical community, ”said the artist after removing the songs from her.

Also Prince Henry of England and his wife, Meghan Markle, publicly expressed their "concern" that the platform fuels hoaxes and conspiracy theories about the pandemic.

Weeks earlier, 270 American doctors and scientists had criticized Spotify in a letter for the damage that broadcasts like Rogan's cause to the trust and knowledge of public opinion.

Following complaints from Harry of England and Meghan Markle, Spotify, which lost more than two billion dollars in market value last week due to the controversy, announced that it will take measures to combat misinformation about the covid- 19.

However, the decision was limited to displaying an ad on all programs dealing with the coronavirus to combat misinformation.

The on-demand music and

company has also announced that it will allocate 100 million dollars (about 87.5 million euros) for the license, development and commercialization of music and audio content of historically marginalized groups, in an attempt to promote to creators from different backgrounds, according to the letter.