What Spotify’s communications chief should have said was “you’re employees. You do not run this company. You do not have that decision power. Maybe one day you will, but, as of now, you do not get to to decide who is on and who is off”
Leaked internal messages from Spotify offer a glimpse into the company’s decision to keep airing Joe Rogan’s podcast, which has come under fire for promoting COVID-19 misinformation.
The Verge reported Friday that Dustee Jenkins, Spotify’s head of global communications and public relations, broached the subject with concerned employees in an internal Slack channel.
Jenkins told them the company reviewed multiple episodes of podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” but concluded they “didn’t meet the threshold for removal,” according to leaked screenshots of her message that were viewed by The Verge.
“We apply our policies consistently and objectively,” Jenkins wrote. “They are not influenced by the media cycle, calls from any one individual or from external partners. It doesn’t mean I personally agree with this content. But I trust our policies and the rationale behind them.”
But, see, all the little progressive Brownshirts get massively butthurt when people with different opinions are allowed to share them. Anything Wrongthink is verboten. I don’t like MSNBC. They consistently lie, they’re a bunch of little Fascists, and they’re utterly dishonest. So, I do not tune in. There are plenty of left leaning programs on iHeart Radio. I listen to rock a lot on the platform. I don’t care if they are also on it. I wouldn’t Demand they be removed. I just won’t listen. But, see, in Liberal World, if you aren’t with them, you’re a Nazi. A Klan member. The worst ever. So, you must be silenced.
Earlier this month, 270 scientists, healthcare workers, and educators signed an open letter calling on Spotify to stop the spread of misinformation on its platform following an episode of Rogan’s podcast in which he interviewed a doctor who baselessly claimed Americans were “hypnotized” into wearing masks and getting COVID-19 vaccines because of what he calls “mass formation psychosis.” Psychology experts have said there is no such phenomenon.
So what? Rebut Rogan. Realistically, attempting to silence gives him even more power.
