In an open letter to Spotify hundreds of medical experts have voiced their concerns over misinformation and ‘baseless conspiracy theories’ surrounding the COVID-19 Pandemic which have been put forth on Joe Rogans’ Podcasts.
The letter stated: “By allowing the propagation of false and societally harmful assertions Spotify is enabling its hosted media to damage public trust in scientific research and sow doubt in the credibility of data-driven guidance offered by medical professionals.”
Rogan, an American podcaster, has a massive platform which has in excess of 11 million followers per episode.
No stranger to hosting controversial guests, Joe Rogan invited virologist and self proclaimed “inventor of mRNA” Dr. Robert Malone to his show which aired on December 31/21.
Malone has been accused in the past of using mass media platforms like ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ to spread false information about the pandemic.
Malone has already been banned from Twitter just last week for ‘repeated violations’ of its COVID-19 misinformation policy. YouTube has a misinformation policy as well. Spotify does not and that is what has doctors demanding they “establish a clear and public policy to moderate misinformation on it’s platform” .
All that being said, it was Dana White, UFC President, who said “ Thank you Dr. Joe Rogan! ” for advice he provided after White’s family contracted the virus back in December.
Speaking with TMZ Sports about his & his families recovery from COVID-19 White praised Rogan:
“Joe Rogan is a brilliant guy and he talks to the most brilliant people out there. He studies, he does his homework on all this stuff and it is a FACT that this works.”
Where is the outcry demanding Consuela Sotomayor be held accountable for her blatant use of misinformation? She’s capable of a lot more damage than Joe Rogan.
Brendan Schaub, the host of ‘The Fighter and the Kid Podcast’, claims that Joe Rogan does not have an agenda like other big platforms such as Fox News or CNN:
“Its like you want to shut this doctor down, which (Anothony) Fauci (Chief Medical Advisor to the President) has done over and over again. But I don’t agree with him. He tries to get them cancelled. He’s notoriously known for that. But also with this it is like hold on, you want to cancel Rogan and this doctor because they don’t agree with what you’re saying? He is more qualified than you guys are… they don’t like that Rogan is this outliner who destroys all of them combined.” Schaub explained (h/t Sportskeeda). “So they’re trying to censor that… Joe doesn’t have an agenda. If you watch CNN or Fox, there’s an agenda, plan or narrative that they are pushing. Joe is not.”
As an infectious disease epidemiologist and research fellow at Boston’s Children’s Hospital who debunks health misinformation on Instagram —where she has more than 380,000 followers — Jessica Malaty Rivera regularly receives tips from her followers about viral content to debunk. A few weeks ago, her followers started sending her a link to an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience, the most popular podcast in the world. The episode was an interview with Dr. Robert Malone, a virologist who touts himself as one of the architects of mRNA technology.
Rivera was familiar with Rogan, as well as Malone. She knew that Malone had been banned from Twitter for promoting Covid-19 misinformation, and that he had been making the rounds in conservative media circles undermining the efficacy of the vaccine. When she watched the interview, she was horrified to see that he espoused various conspiratorial and baseless beliefs, from the idea that “mass formation psychosis” is responsible for people believing in the efficacy of vaccines; to the claim popular among anti-vaxxers that hospitals are financially incentivized to falsely diagnose Covid-19 deaths. The episode featuring Malone went viral, and was shared widely in right-wing media circles as well as on Facebook, where the link on Spotify has been shared nearly 25,000 times, according to CrowdTangle data.
Yet Rivera was even more horrified to discover that people in her life, whom she considered to be “quite wise and discerning,” were hoodwinked by Malone’s patina of academic credibility, considering his views on the vaccine legitimate. “When I saw they were falling victim to this, I spoke to some colleagues and we said something has to be done at this point,” she says.
Rivera is one of 270 doctors, physicians, and science educators who signed an open letter calling on Spotify, which obtained exclusively streaming rights to the Joe Rogan Experience in a reported $100 million deal, to take action against misinformation on the platform, such as that contained in the interview with Malone. “With an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, JRE, which is hosted exclusively on Spotify, is the world’s largest podcast and has tremendous influence,” the letter reads. “Spotify has a responsibility to mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform, though the company presently has no misinformation policy.”
The letter was initially appended with a lengthy fact-check of all of the claims presented in Malone’s interview with Rogan, from the “mass formation psychosis” supposition to Malone’s claim that the Biden administration is suppressing evidence supporting the efficacy of ivermectin as a Covid-19 treatment. “People who don’t have the scientific or medical background to recognize the things he’s saying are not true and are unable to distinguish fact from fiction are going to believe what [Malone is] saying, and this is the biggest podcast in the world. And that’s terrifying,” says Dr. Ben Rein, a neuroscientist at Stanford University who co-authored the letter with Rivera and other doctors and educators.
The Malone segment is far from the first time Rogan has been accused of platforming misinformation on his podcast. In an April 23, 2021 episode, for instance, Rogan actively discouraged young people from getting the vaccine, saying in a conversation with comedian Dave Smith, “if you’re like 21 years old, and you say to me, ‘Should I get vaccinated?’ I’ll go no.’”
Rogan has also promoted taking ivermectin to treat Covid-19 symptoms, despite the fact that there is no evidence to support ivermectin’s efficacy as a treatment and that ingesting it can lead to such side effects as dizziness and uncontrolled vomiting. “This doctor was saying ivermectin is 99 percent effective intreating Covid, but you don’t hear about it because you can’t fund vaccines when it’s an effective treatment,” he said on the same April episode of his podcast, as Rolling Stone previously reported. “I don’t know if this guy is right or wrong. I’m just asking questions.” Rogan has also platformed many discredited physicians and academics who have spoken out against the vaccine, such as Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist who inaccurately claimed that COVID-19 vaccines are “experimental” and that the pandemic was “planned.”
How is it a lie if its working for people?
I wonder how many of these “doctors” are in the pockets of Big Pharma?
Will these same Dr’s make the same demands from the CDC, WHO, and White House?
Why don’t they counter what he says instead of trying to silence him. Only experts can shut down other experts so do it then you pathetic crybullies.
This was just some REEEEtard who wrote a letter, and the hundreds of fake Twitter doctors cosigned. I wonder if Dr. Jonathon Sinns signed the letter.
Nothing Rogan has said so far has put anyone in danger. It’s only dangerous to the “so called experts”, this Regime, and the pharmaceutical companies pushing the vax because he’s discussing alternative treatments and exposing possible side-effects of the vax. AGAIN…for a “bat” virus “not a lab leaked or gain of function man-made virus” that has a 99% recovery rate.
bumppp
What misinformation are they citing? What factual claims did Rogan make/spread that are allegedly not true? Let’s get specific fellas. Then we can have meaningful dialogue.