(Image credit: / nikimeel) Should Spotify be worried? I've never tried to do anything with this podcast other than just talk to people and have interesting conversations'. Rogan himself has responded to the backlash (opens in new tab), saying that “I'm not trying to promote misinformation, I'm not trying to be controversial. We’ve reached out to Spotify for further comment, but so far, the company hasn’t responded. Among these guidelines, there’s a section dedicated to disallowing content that “promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health'. Spotify has since published its ' platform rules (opens in new tab)', the first time it's made public the content guidelines that it upholds for its content creators – both exclusive Spotify partners and any other contributor that shares on the platform.

While she concedes that Spotify’s decision to back Rogan is probably “nothing but business”, the issue is personal for Jones: “My father was radicalized against the Covid vaccines by voices like Joe Rogan my business partner is a high-risk individual whom anti-vaxxers put at risk with their choice to put his and others bodies in jeopardy.” Sarah Jones, editor-in-chief of PoliticusUSA (opens in new tab), told us that she deleted Spotify because she “can’t bear to knowingly share space with a global brand” that she believes is promoting anti-vaxx content. We spoke to one former Spotify subscriber who felt “disappointed” in the service for not challenging Rogan when Neil Young initially threatened to remove his music from the platform. Whether you feel that Joe Rogan’s podcast is spreading misinformation or not – and its many subscribers prove that plenty of people are perfectly happy with the host and his guests – large and influential platforms like Spotify arguably have a duty to protect users from potentially harmful content. (Image credit: Future Publishing) A duty of care?

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