Spotify CEO hits back at calls to \u201ccancel\u201d Joe Rogan amid JRE racism controversy Spotify: Joe Rogan \/ Wikimedia CommonsSpotify CEO Daniel Ek sent a letter to employees on February 6 apologizing for Joe Rogan\u2019s \u201churtful\u201d comments. However, he refused to \u201ccancel\u201d him, saying it isn\u2019t the answer. Joe Rogan and his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, have been a source of controversy as of late. In January 2022, he was accused of spreading misinformation after having controversial guests on his show. Then, he came under fire for using racial slurs in past episodes after old footage surfaced. Rogan accepted responsibility for his comments, describing them as \u201cidiotic.\u201d However, he insisted they were taken out of context. In the midst of the backlash, Spotify quietly removed more than 70 episodes of his podcast, following on from the 40 they removed in April 2021. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek addressed the issue in a letter to his employees. He condemned Rogan\u2019s comments and revealed the podcast host was the one who decided to remove episodes. However, he also refused to \u201ccancel\u201d him. \u201cWe\u2019ve had conversations with Joe and his team about some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language,\u201d said Ek. \u201cFollowing these discussions and his own reflections, he chose to remove a number of episodes from Spotify. \u201cWhile I strongly condemn what Joe has said, and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more. And I want to make one point very clear \u2013 I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer. Ek admitted the company needs to have \u201cclear lines\u201d around content and \u201ctake action\u201d when those lines are crossed. However, he reiterated his desire to not deplatform Rogan, saying: \u201cCanceling voices is a slippery slope.\u201d The reason is he believes \u201ccritical thinking\u201d and \u201copen debate\u201d are what powers \u201creal and necessary progress,\u201d \u2014 implying these are positive aspects of the podcast. However, he vowed to promote \u201cmore speech on more issues\u201d on the platform, too. At the end of the letter, Ek revealed the company will soon invest $100 million to promote \u201cthe licensing, development, and marketing of music (artists and songwriters) and audio content from historically marginalized groups.\u201d He also acknowledged the importance of listening to people inside and outside of Spotify and said the company would ramp up efforts to consult with \u201coutside experts\u201d to help balance creator expression with user safety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spotify CEO hits back at calls to \u201ccancel\u201d Joe Rogan amid JRE racism controversy Spotify: Joe Rogan \/ Wikimedia CommonsSpotify CEO Daniel Ek sent a letter to employees on February 6 apologizing for Joe Rogan\u2019s \u201churtful\u201d comments. However, he refused to \u201ccancel\u201d him, saying it isn\u2019t the answer. Joe Rogan and his podcast, The Joe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59207\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}