Spotify's Covid moderation spotlighted as Joe Rogan and Elon Musk push for 'debate'

After Baylor microbiology professor and public health advocate Peter Hotez, M.D. PHD. On Joe Rogan's misinformed article tweeting a Motherboard article about Spotify's lack of moderation, Rogan challenged him to debate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Rogan.

Twitter owner Elon Musk joined the fray, accusing Hotez of "disgusting charity" by not accepting the debate, and hours after Elon and Rogan taunted Hotez, the professor tweeted, "I just have to say my The chase to the front of the house was a couple antivaxxers taunting me for debating RFKJr.

This adds a troubling new dynamic to this story, especially in the context of the Motherboard story that started it, which touched on Spotify's contradictions in allowing Rogan's misinformation to persist on the platform. In the article, a spokesperson for Spotify is quoted as saying that since Rogan and Kennedy never said that Covid vaccines were designed to kill people, the episode was not a violation of the rules.

Spotify signed a $100 million deal with Rogan three years ago, and instituted a new set of misinformation policies after several high-profile stars removed their music from the platform in protest of Rogan's vaccine claims. which was previously unheard of by Spotify.

Even when policies are in place, conspiracies like the ones exposed on The Joe Rogan Experience can go viral as social media spreads the claims. To date, according to JREmissing, a site that tracks episodes of deleted podcasts, 111 episodes have been deleted.

Since Hotez's original tweet, Rogan has tweeted and retweeted criticisms and insinuations about Hotez – who has been a guest on the podcast in the past – shortly before Hotez's tweet about being stalked.

We've reached out to Spotify for comment on the story and will update if we receive a response.