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Joe Rogan posted an apology Saturday and Spotify appeared to have eliminated roughly 70 episodes of his podcast as movies of Rogan utilizing racial slurs in previous reveals unfold on social media. The information comes amid a musician-led protest of Spotify over permitting Rogan’s podcast to unfold COVID-19 misinformation.
Earlier this week, Grammy-winning singer India.Arie, who’s pulled her catalog from Spotify, shared a compilation video by way of Instagram that reveals Rogan uttering a racial slur on quite a few previous episodes of his present. She acknowledged that clips may be taken out of context however stated Rogan should not be utilizing such slurs beneath any circumstances. She additionally posted a message saying Rogan was problematic not simply due to his COVID interviews but in addition due to “his language round race.”
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The podcast host, who in 2020 inked a deal reportedly value greater than $100 million to distribute his present solely on Spotify, took to Instagram early Saturday to say he was sorry. “I actually wasn’t making an attempt to be racist,” Rogan stated, “and I actually would by no means need to offend somebody for leisure with one thing as silly as racism.” Rogan stated he agrees he should not use such slurs, whatever the context.
Read extra: Spotify will not ax Joe Rogan until Bad Bunny or The Weeknd protests too
The apology got here shortly after a fan-made web site discovered that roughly 70 episodes of the podcast have been not out there on Spotify. The web site, JREMissing, makes use of Spotify’s API to check out there episodes to a database of all episodes recorded.
Spotify has beforehand excluded episodes of the podcast for violating its content material insurance policies. CNET cannot verify a hyperlink between the at present circulating movies and the disappearance of the episodes. Neither Spotify nor Rogan responded to requests for remark.
In his apology video, Rogan does say that in some unspecified time in the future he deleted one specific podcast episode over what he referred to as an idiotic and racist comment he’d clumsily made. And on Saturday, Bloomberg cited an nameless supply in reporting that Spotify took down dozens of episodes of the podcast after Rogan made the choice following a dialog with the corporate.
The new controversy and obvious removals come amid broader concern about Rogan’s podcast serving as a platform for COVID misinformation. Rocker Neil Young and people icon Joni Mitchell pulled their music from Spotify after an open letter signed by greater than 250 medical professionals, researchers and professors pointed to the podcast as proof the streaming service was helping within the promotion of misinformation.
CEO Daniel Ek has defended the inclusion of Rogan on the corporate’s roster and informed a firm city corridor that the podcast was very important to Spotify’s success.
“If we wish even a shot at reaching our daring ambitions, it is going to imply having content material on Spotify that many people will not be proud to be related to,” Ek stated throughout the city corridor. “Not something goes, however there might be opinions, concepts and beliefs that we disagree with strongly and even makes us offended or unhappy.”