270 scientists & healthcare professionals write open letter to Spotify regarding Covid-19 Misinformation

Although the Covid-19 pandemic has been ongoing for almost 2 years now, the spread of harmful misinformation on social media platforms continues at the forefront of news headlines. Streaming giant Spotify is the newest company to come under fire for misinformation as 270 US scientists, doctors and other healthcare professionals write an open letter criticising misinformation on The Joe Rogan Experience, one of the platforms most listened to podcasts.

The letter specifically calls out the podcasts episode with virologist Robert Malone, a doctor who was recently banned from Twitter for repeatedly promoting negative lies about the Covid-19 vaccine. In this particular podcast episode, the virologist claimed that vaccine creators were hiding information on side effects such as magnetic properties, also comparing the US today to other controversial moments in history. The letter was spearheaded partly by infectious disease epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera who constantly has to take to her 38,000 Instagram followers when asked to debunk Joe Rogan‘s and others claims. Read a preview of the open letter below:

“We are a coalition of scientists, medical professionals, professors, and science communicators spanning a wide range of fields such as microbiology, immunology, epidemiology, and neuroscience and we are calling on Spotify to take action against the mass-misinformation events which continue to occur on its platform. – This is not only a scientific or medical concern; it is a sociological issue of devastating proportions and Spotify is responsible for allowing this activity to thrive on its platform.“

It is estimated the Joe Rogan Experience podcast draws around 11 million listeners per episode and is exclusive to Spotify after a $100 million deal between Rogan and the streaming platform. At the time of writing, Spotify is yet to address the open letter which you can read in full here.

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