Spotify faces calls for a misinfo policy as an open letter exposes Joe Rogan's COVID lies.
Spotify faces calls for a misinfo policy as an open letter exposes Joe Rogan's COVID lies
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| Joe Rogan continues to cause issues for Spotify when it comes to COVID-19 misinformation. Credit: Vivian Zink/Syfy/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal Via Getty Images |
Podcaster Joe Rogan is once again causing problems for the company that pays him $100 million: Spotify.
Last week, 270 doctors, scientists, and professors published an open letter to the audio streaming giant demanding that the company create an official policy around misinformation. The letter, which was first reported by Rolling Stone, focused on Rogan's popular show, the Joe Rogan Experience, which has been a source of misinformation surrounding COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
"We are a coalition of scientists, medical professionals, professors, and science communicators spanning a wide range of fields such as microbiology, immunology, epidemiology, and neuroscience and we are calling on Spotify to take action against the mass-misinformation events which continue to occur on its platform," reads the letter.
"With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence," it continues. " Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform."
An epidemiologist at University of Illinois Chicago School of Public Health, Katrine Wallace, even went further in her own comments to Rolling Stone, saying she considers Rogan to be "a menace to public health."
The letter focuses on Rogan's Dec. 31 episode with Dr. Robert Malone, who claims to be the "inventor" of mRNA vaccine technology. The episode went viral on social media after Dr. Malone claimed "mass formation psychosis," what he claims means when society goes "barking mad," was to blame for the response to the pandemic.
Experts have debunked this "mass formation psychosis" claim.
"In episode #1757, Rogan hosted Dr. Robert Malone, who was suspended from Twitter for spreading misinformation about COVID-19," reads the letter. "Dr. Malone used the JRE platform to further promote numerous baseless claims, including several falsehoods about COVID-19 vaccines and an unfounded theory that societal leaders have “hypnotized” the public. Many of these statements have already been discredited."
The open letter continues to mention other examples of Rogan's COVID misinformation. During an April 2021 episode of the podcast, for example, Rogan claimed that young, healthy people shouldn't prioritize getting the COVID-19 vaccine and called vaccinating children "crazy to me."
In response to the letter, Rogan's fans attempted to signal boost their own praise for the podcaster in an attempt to drown out the criticism.
"We would be in very serious trouble right now without Joe Rogan and Spotify’s courage," read a tweet from podcaster and frequent Joe Rogan Experience guest, Bret Weinstein. "Let’s make #ThanksJoeRogan and #ThankYouSpotify trend. Don’t cut and paste. And consider doing them in separate tweets. Let’s let’em know we appreciate them."
Spotify has had to deal with controversy thanks to Rogan before. Employees of the company concerned with Rogan's content have pushed for more editorial control over the podcaster, whose program airs exclusively on Spotify thanks to a $100 million deal. The company has previously removed dozens of episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience from its platform due to content issues.
"Spotify prohibits content on the platform which promotes dangerous false, deceptive, or misleading content about COVID-19 that may cause offline harm and/or pose a direct threat to public health," Spotify said in a prior comment given to The Verge in April 2021. "When content that violates this standard is identified it is removed from the platform."
Since the episode went live, Rogan's interview with Dr. Malone has been removed from YouTube in accordance with the platform's policies on COVID misinformation. Dr. Malone has also personally been suspended from Twitter due to its own COVID misinformation rules.
The episode, however, remains live on Spotify. The company did not respond to an email from Mashable seeking comment
More in COVID-19
As apposed to Fauci lies. LOL.
ReplyDeleteWho cares I’m so done with everything related to Covid
ReplyDeleteand it’s all about you O.o
Deleteyes it is
Deleteffs let the man live, we aint here intervening in your downward spiral
DeleteI didn’t know living = head in the sand.
DeleteI have a few neighbors who would like to have a word with you. If they could.
Deletedo us a favor and follow your own advice,
DeleteOnly toxic men on this thread . Can you please moderate better ?
ReplyDeleteWhen I want misinformation I simply tune to CNN. ;)
ReplyDeleteHe gets $100 million dollars to tell people whatever they want to hear - lies or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteand THAT is the point..like Fox News, he lies for money..
DeleteI am not sure of any point when most people who listen to him don't really care whether he's telling the truth or not.
DeleteMost people who don't believe him are already tuned out to him.
Wow a whole 270 “doctors scientist and professors” of who knows what are trying to control what someone’s 11.6 million followers are listening to!! ;D they are so small yet want to feel so big.
ReplyDelete11 million fools don’t change facts.
Delete270 is a lot, given how few doctors there are, and how hard it is to qualify as one. Rogan should not be dispensing medical opinion, if he does, nobody should listen. Instead, somehow, tons of people take him seriously. why?
Deletelol there are not just a few doctors!!! According to Google: there are 980,000 drs, 47,000 scientists and 135,000 professors. So 270 of their 1.162 million peers represents 0.02% of them. And people aren’t listening for Joe Rogans opinions, they are listening to his guests (who are DOCTORS that had direct influence on the creation of the vaccine!) to form their OWN opinions. You guys crack me up.
Deletethat fact you think the is only one of that thinks like the person you replied to kinda is proving his point as we already know that 270 scientist, professors, doctors who agree. Plus me.
DeleteMark Palmer Dr. Robert Malone is a quack? He holds the patent for the mnra technology used in making the vaccine. His list of Original data, notes, patents, early papers, lab notes, meeting notes, patent disclosures:
DeleteLipid-mediated polynucleotide administration to deliver a biologically active peptide and to induce a cellular immune response (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, R Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc and licensed to Merck. No. 7,250,404, date of issue: 7/31/07 Cited in 105 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
Lipid-mediated polynucleotide administration to reduce likelihood of subject's becoming infected (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc and licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,867,195 B1. Date of issue: 3/15/05. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
Generation of an immune response to a pathogen (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc and licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,710,035. Date of issue: 3/23/04. Citations: 39 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
Expression of exogenous polynucleotide sequences in a vertebrate, mammal, fish, bird or human (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,673,776. Date of issue: 1/6/04. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
Methods of delivering a physiologically active polypeptide to a mammal (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,413,942. Date of issue: 7/2/02. (cited in 150 articles). Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
Induction of a protective immune response in a mammal by injecting a DNA sequence (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 6,214,804, date of issue: 4/10/01. Cited in 360 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
PART 2
DeleteInduction of a protective immune response in a mammal by injecting a DNA sequence (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,589,466. Date of issue: 12/31/96. Cited in 899 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
Delivery of exogenous DNA sequences in a mammal (includes mRNA). Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,580,859. Date of issue: 12/3/96. Cited in 1244 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
Generation of antibodies through lipid mediated DNA delivery (includes mRNA). P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, Robert W Malone, D Carson. Assigned to Vical, Inc, licensed to Merck. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,703,055. Date of issue: 12/30/97. Cited in 419 articles. Priority Date: 3/21/1989.
A novel approach to study packaging of retroviral RNA by RNA transfection (Abstract). RW Malone, P. Felgner, I. Verma. RNA Tumor Viruses, May 17-18, 1988. Cold Spring Harbor (the first in a series of papers/abstracts on RNA transfection).
mRNA Transfection of cultured eukaryotic cells and embryos using cationic liposomes. Malone RW. Focus. 1989; 11:61-8
The SALK patent that was filed with the USPTO on 3/21/1989. Note that the cover letter hides this - and says it was filed on 3/29/89 - the sane date as all the VICAL patents, showing that there was collusion.
THE VERY FIRST mRNA VACCINE EXPERIMENTAL DATA 1990 (from Vical to patent office)
Cationic liposome-mediated RNA transfection. Malone RW, Felgner PL, Verma IM. Proc Natl Acad Sci (PNAS) U S A. 1989;86(16):6077-81. Cited in 749 articles.
Direct gene transfer into mouse muscle in vivo. Wolff JA, Malone RW, et al. Science. 1990;247(4949 Pt 1):1465-8. Cited in 4,750 articles. Note that Robert was a student at Northwestern, and was never affiliated with University of Wisc.
High levels of messenger RNA expression following cationic liposome mediated transfection tissue cultured cells. Malone R, Kumar R, Felgner P. NIH Conference: “Self-Cleaving RNA as an Anti-HIV Agent (abstract). Washington, DC June 1989.
Cationic liposome-mediated RNA transfection. Dwarki VJ, Malone RW, Verma IM. Methods Enzymol. 1993;217:644-54. Cited in: 102 articles.
Delivery of exogenous DNA (includes mRNA) sequences in a mammal P Felgner, JA Wolff, GH Rhodes, R Malone, D Carson. Biotechnology Advances 1993: 15 (3-4), 763-763
DNA vaccines for eliciting a mucosal immune response (includes mRNA). US Pat. Ser. No. 6,110,898. Inventors: RW Malone and Jill Glasspool Malone. Date of issue: 8/29/00. Cited in 40 articles. Priority Date: 1996.
Formulations and methods for generating active cytofectin: polynucleotide transfection complexes. Robert W Malone, et al. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,925,623 7/20/99.
Cationic Transport Reagents. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,892,071 Robert W Malone, et. al. issued 4/06/99.
Polyfunctional cationic cytofectins, formulations and methods for generating active cytofectin: polynucleotide transfection complexes. Robert W Malone, et. al. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,824,812 issued 10/20/98.
Cationic Transport Reagents. Robert W Malone, et. al. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,744,625 issued 4/28/98.
Cationic Transport Reagents. Robert W Malone, et. al. US Pat. Ser. No. 5,527,928, date of issue: 6/18/96.
Marked enhancement of macaque respiratory tissue transfection by aurintricarboxylic acid. Glasspool-Malone J, …, Malone RW. Gene Med. 2002;4(3):323-2.
Enhancing direct in vivo transfection with nuclease inhibitors and pulsed electrical fields. Glasspool-Malone J, Malone RW. In Gene Therapy Methods: Methods Enzymol. 2002;346:72-91
PART 3
DeleteCutaneous transfection and immune responses to intradermal nucleic acid vaccination are significantly enhanced by in vivo electropermeabilization. Drabick JJ, Glasspool-Malone J, …, Malone RW. Mol Ther. 2001;3(2):249-55. Cited in 192 articles.
Theory and in vivo application of electroporative gene delivery. Somiari S, Glasspool-Malone J, … Malone RW. Mol Ther. 2000;2(3):178-87. Cited in 345 articles.
Efficient nonviral cutaneous transfection. Glasspool-Malone J, …, Malone RW. Mol Ther. 2000;2(2):140-6. Cited in 138 articles.
Developing dendritic cell polynucleotide vaccination for prostate cancer immunotherapy. Berlyn KA, …, Malone RW J Biotechnol. 1999;73(2-3):155-79
Models of Cationic Liposome Mediated Transfection. Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology. Ahearn A, Malone RW. Vol 4. Gene Therapy and Molecular Biology 1999;4
Cationic lipid-mediated gene delivery to murine lung: correlation of lipid hydration with in vivo transfection activity. Bennett MJ, …, Malone RW, Nantz MH. J Med Chem. 1997;40(25):4069-78
Considerations for the design of improved cationic amphiphile-based transfection reagents. Bennett MJ, …, Malone RW. Journal of Liposome Research 1996;6(3):545-65
Structural and functional analysis of cationic transfection lipids: the hydrophobic domain. Balasubramaniam RP, …, Malone RW. Gene Ther. 1996;3(2):163-72. cited in 172 articles.
A flexible approach to synthetic lipid ammonium salts for polynucleotide transfection. MJ Bennett, RW Malone, MH Nantz. Tetrahedron letters 36 (13), 2207-2210
Still think he’s a quack? I think he is a LITTLE smarter than you.
I Write in 3 parts, why not allow more than 4000 characters.
Deleteyoure still pretty far away from 11 million, I’ll wait while you go find some more of your friends. Maybe see how many subscribers The View has ;D
Deletelol, don't bother, I know it is just us 272 people who believe in science and the facts about this vaccine. They other 207 mil that got the vaccine just did it because they trust us more than a talk show host. After all, he and you, have done their research.
Deleteit’s incredibly clear that you have never listened to his show, or even bothered to look into the episode in question. If you did you would realize your comments make absolutely no sense because I agree, a qualified Dr like Dr Robert Malone should be listened to. Why would someone disagree with the Dr that owns the patents to the mnra tech that lead to the vaccines right?
Deleteyou do realize that doctors are not unanimously all on the same page about this topic right? It doesn’t help to just listen to the ones that squak the loudest.
DeleteIt's hilarious how the media can't compete with Rogan. Haters gonna hate.
ReplyDeletehttps://giphy.com/gifs/somegoodnews-sgn-one-hundred-thousand-percent-fV2maQ4MAyUxrZWHEi
DeleteMashable calls it “misinformation”
ReplyDeleteOld Joe must be on to something.
what would you call it? lies? ignorance? he tried to convince millions that ivermectin had 'cured' his covid, when in fact he had cloned antibodies
Deleteits all a scam
Deleteoh really? I guess you can say that about anything. Reality is all faked! It's all a 'scam'! Get a grip.
Deleteoh don’t bother commenting. I don’t care what you have to say. I haven’t worn a mask yet. Haven’t missed a day of work either.
DeleteWho’s paying your Bills Mashable?
ReplyDeleteI’m off
These comments are hysterical. He’s deemed an expert by his JoBros on every topic imaginable because he “interviews smart people”. Somehow this makes him smart. Or what’s even funnier is that he “does the research”! ;D
ReplyDeleteMashable = misinformation
ReplyDeleteDo worse, it’s propaganda
Deletenahzi propaganda
DeleteNorth Korean leader is a todler in comparison to "woke" West.
ReplyDeleteweak sauce. Try again.
DeleteDesperate dirt campaign. ;D
ReplyDeleteThat would mean a ban on policiticans for providing misinformation also?
ReplyDeleteYou mean Joe is exposing your lies! And now you are mad ;D
ReplyDeleteOr has he?
ReplyDeletehello hope you're doing okay today.. And how is the weather treating you !?
DeleteAccusing him of misinformation is a lie. He is level headed and fair in all his discussions
ReplyDeleteAnd who decides what is “mis”information and what is “correct”? It’s alarming how free speech and challenging dialogue is under severe attack, to thunderous applause of the people, and most disturbingly, the applause of people who should particularly champion the right to disagree and explore.
ReplyDeleteWho decides??
DeleteSpeaking of misinformation, why are you still here?
ReplyDeleteMashable and you other MSM lot: Tell us how it feels watching your propaganda ship sink.
ReplyDeleteMisinformation? Or not following party line?
ReplyDelete“Last week, 270 doctors, scientists, and professors published an open letter to the audio streaming giant demanding that the company create an official policy around misinformation.” - case in point, his podcast outs these very doctors lol!
ReplyDeleteJoe ❤
ReplyDeleteWhat misinformation?
ReplyDeleteThey silenced MJ so it don’t be hard to shut him up either
ReplyDelete