Neil Young is tired of Spotify facilitating misinformation and has given them an ultimatum: "They can have Rogan or Young. Not Both."
In an open letter written to his manager on his website (which has been deleted), Young wrote: "I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule."
Frank Gironda, Young's manager, has confirmed the letter was real and that further discussions are taking place. “It’s something that’s really important to Neil,” said Gironda. “He’s very upset about this disinformation. We’re trying to figure this out right now.”
Young joins the voices of over 1000 scientists and medical professionals who recently called out Spotify for facilitating misinformation in another Open Letter written directly to the company. While the letter called for a more robust misinformation policy, it had a clear target, specifically The Joe Rogan Podcast and its discouragement of young people to get the vaccine and the promoting the off-label use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19. "With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence. Though Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, the company presently has no misinformation policy”.
Spotify has yet to respond to Young or the previous open letter in any way and a misinformation policy is still completely absent on the platform.
Related News: Open Letter to Spotify: Take action against misinformation
It is also important to note what exactly can be done about the spread of misinformation. Removing content with dangerous information is one way to combat it, however, providing context and debunks to false claims has been shown to be much more effective than simply slashing away misinformation.
Featured image: Flickr via flickr.com
