The folk-rock artist Neil Young has removed all his music from the streaming service Spotify. The issue arose when Neil Young claimed that Spotify was supporting the spreading of Covid-19 misinformation by continuing to have and promote the podcaster, Joe Rogan, on their service.
Joe Rogan is a podcaster who has received criticism in the past for talking about “controversial” topics. However, the people who complain about Joe Rogan spreading misinformation are the type of people who have never listened to one of his podcasts. The “misinformation” that he is spreading is information about Mass Formation Psychosis, which in simple terms is groupthink. Groupthink is when decisions are made as a group in a way that discourages individual responsibility and creativity. Joe Rogan found similarities between MFP and Covid-19 and argued that many people just did what they were told and did not think for themselves, and people took that to mean he was spreading misinformation on purpose.
Young gave Spotify an ultimatum: “Pick me or Joe Rogan.” Of course, Spotify picked Joe Rogan because they paid $100 million to have him on their service.
Canadian musician Joni Mitchell has also pulled her music from the streaming service over the same issue. Rogan claimed that he was not trying to spread misinformation. Rogan said that he would try to have a more balanced podcast and have a wider range of viewpoints from guests on his show. He also said that he will do more research for his podcast. Spotify also has taken precautions to fix this issue. They have put Covid-19 information links on the page for his podcast similar to what Instagram did at the beginning of the pandemic. Listeners can find more information about Covid-19 by clicking the link.
This whole fiasco proves the problem with people online in the world today. They don’t seem to realize that if they don’t like something or are offended by it they can just not listen to it. They don’t have to blame the service that they are on and beg and plead for them to deplatform them. Cancel culture and deplatforming is a big problem because even for the most minor things, people want them to be canceled. Our society needs to mature and learn how to not be offended by the most minor offenses.