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Stop me if you’ve heard this before:
A popular internet personality loved by millions for his disrespectful, anti-establishment comment draws a backlash after critics accuse him of promoting dangerous misinformation.
The controversy is swirling around the creator’s largest platform, which has rules that prohibit dangerous misinformation and is now facing pressure to enforce them against one of its most high-profile users.
Hoping to weather the storm, the platform’s CEO has published a blog post about the importance of freedom of speech, refusing to punish those who break the rules, but promising to introduce new features that will encourage higher-quality information.
Still, the reaction is intensifying. Civil rights groups are holding a boycott. Advertisers pull their campaigns. A hashtag trends. Employees of the platform are threatening to quit. Days later, the chief executive is forced to choose between blocking a popular creator – and facing the wrath of his fans – or being seen as an enabler of hypocritical and dangerous behavior.
If this scenario sounds familiar, it’s because some version of it has happened on every major internet media platform over the past half-decade. Facebook and Alex Jones, Twitter and Donald Trump, YouTube and PewDiePie, Netflix and Dave Chappelle: Every major platform has at some point gotten stuck between this rock and a hard place.
Now it’s Spotify’s turn. The audio giant has faced weeks of calls for action against mega-popular podcast host Joe Rogan after Mr. blocked by twitter To spread false information about Covid-19 vaccines. This month, a group of hundreds of medical professionals Called Spotify to crash About the Covid-19 misinformation, saying Mr Rogan has a “history” of promoting lies about the virus.
So far, the recoil loop is reaching most of the usual notes. Critics have compared short portions of Mr. Rogan’s interviews with Spotify’s stated guidelines. ban material “Promoting dangerously false or dangerously deceptive content about Covid-19.” Two folk rock legends, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, led the boycott, pulled their catalog from Spotify last week to protest the platform’s decision to support Mr. Another popular host, Brené Brown, said she was soon following him. won’t release new episodes Spotify-exclusive podcast “until further notice”
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify published the required blog post On Sunday, he defended the company’s commitment to free speech and said “it’s important to me that we don’t take a position of content censorship.” While Spotify refused to take action against Mr. Rogan, it committed to placing advisory warnings about Covid-19 in podcast episodes and directing listeners to a center full of authoritative health information.
Despite their superficial similarities, Mr. Rogan’s opposition to Spotify differs from many other conflicts between creators and tech platforms in a few key ways.
First, Spotify isn’t just one of many apps that distribute Mr. Rogan’s podcast. streaming service paid more than $100 million For the exclusive rights to “The Joe Rogan Experience” in 2020, it makes the headlines for its growing podcast episode. Critics say the deal, along with the aggressive promotion of Mr. Rogan’s show on Spotify’s app, gives the company more responsibility for its show than any other.
Another difference is who uses the leverage in this conflict. YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are ad-supported businesses; If advertisers do not agree with moderation decisions, they can withdraw their campaigns and threaten to cause financial damage. (These boycotts actually achieve everything another question.)
Spotify, by contrast, makes most of its money from subscriptions, so it’s unlikely to suffer financially from handling Mr. Rogan unless there’s a wave of account cancellations. And given how few Netflix subscribers canceled their subscriptions during the dusting with Mr. Chappelle last year, Spotify can probably breathe a sigh of relief on that front for now.
But Spotify has a different constituency to worry about: the stars. A leading music streaming service like Spotify should have popular hits in its library, which means, in theory, musicians with enough firepower could force change by threatening to remove their albums. (Aspect viral tweet he said last week, “Taylor Swift could end Joe Rogan on Spotify with a single tweet.”) In practice, it’s a little more complicated than that, in part because record companies often control music streaming rights, not musicians. But if Mr. Young and Ms. Mitchell’s moves inspire more musicians and/or record labels to take their songs off Spotify, it could become a real business risk for the company.
A third difference is Mr. Rogan himself. Unlike Mr. Jones and other hot brands, he is primarily an interviewer and much of the buzz has been in response to what his guests have said. Critics of Mr. Rogan Their own statements about Covid-19 It’s full of questionable information.
So how will Mr. Rogan’s reaction cycle end? It’s hard to say.
One possibility is that it will end up like that of Mr Jones and Mr Trump, who are so outrageous (and continue to blatantly break the rule even after being summoned) that Twitter and Facebook have no choice but to shut them down. permanently down.
Mr. Rogan could have doubled down on Covid-19 misinformation, dare Spotify to remove him from the platform, and portray himself as an “awakened mob victim” censored for speaking too many disturbing truths. He could ditch the Spotify deal and return to YouTube and other platforms carrying his show. (It might even go to a right-wing social network like Getr or Parler, but I’m guessing it would prefer an audience.)
Or he could do what popular YouTube creator PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, did after he was accused of making anti-Semitic comments. shortly after to be the hero of right-wing reactionariesKjellberg apologized for his behavior, cleaned up his channel, and eventually returned to the platform’s goodwill.
Mr. Rogan can surrender quietly, keep the Spotify deal, and move away from the fringes of COVID suspicion without damaging his reputation as an anti-establishment dissident. (This outcome seemed like the most likely outcome for Mr. Rogan’s Sunday night. He posted a 10-minute Instagram video He apologized for his “out of control” program and promised to invite more mainstream experts to discuss the pandemic.)
A third option is that the whole discussion could simply fade away, as was the confusion with Mr Chappelle and Netflix last year, after the comedian was accused of making transphobic remarks during a special show and ended days later with no real consequences for anyone. . However, considering that the boycotts have already started and snowballed, this outcome seems unlikely.
The relationship between media personalities and the networks that publish their work has always been tense. But things have gotten more complicated in recent years, as growth-hungry tech companies start paying top stars directly for their content. These deals have made them more like old radio and TV stations – choosing popular acts, paying generously for their work, taking more responsibility for their output – and less like the neutral platforms they once claimed.
The relationships between companies and their users are also changing. Users of these services have learned by observing dozens of backlash cycles over the past few years that enough pressure can get a tech company to do almost anything. They understand that corporate rules are vague and improvised, and that what top executives most want—no matter what high-minded principles they may claim—is for people to stop yelling at them. They also know that if a company doesn’t take action based solely on listener complaints, there are other ways to raise the temperature.
Spotify may think Rogan’s backlash has passed at its worst. But we know from recent history that what seems like the end of a content moderation discussion is often just a warm-up move.
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