Joe Rogan spreads vaccine misinformation while Spotify remains inactive.

Baylor microbiology professor and public health advocate Dr. Peter Hotez, MD Ph.D., recently shared an article from Motherboard on Twitter, highlighting Spotify’s failure to moderate Joe Rogan’s misinformation. This came after a podcast episode featuring guest Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., where they discussed conspiracy theories about vaccines, 5G technology, and ivermectin. In response, Rogan challenged Dr. Hotez to a debate, offering a $100,000 donation to a charity of Hotez’s choice if he agreed.

Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, joined the discussion, accusing Hotez of “hating charity” for not accepting the debate. This led to hours of taunting from Musk and Rogan’s supporters on Twitter. Hotez later tweeted about being stalked by anti-vaxxers outside his home.

This situation raises concerns, especially considering the Motherboard article, which revealed Spotify’s leniency towards Rogan’s misinformation. According to a Spotify spokesperson mentioned in the article, the episode was not in violation of their rules because Rogan and Kennedy did not explicitly claim that COVID vaccines were designed to cause harm.

Spotify signed a $100 million deal with Rogan three years ago and implemented new misinformation policies after other artists removed their music from the platform in protest of Rogan’s vaccine-related claims that were previously ignored by Spotify.

Despite the implemented policies, conspiracy theories discussed on The Joe Rogan Experience can still gain traction through social media, leading to their spread. So far, 111 episodes of the podcast have been taken down, as reported by JREmissing, a site that tracks removed episodes.

Following Dr. Hotez’s initial tweet, Rogan tweeted and retweeted criticisms and insinuations about Hotez, who had previously appeared as a guest on his podcast. This continued until Hotez’s tweet about being stalked.

We have reached out to Spotify for comment on this story and will update with their response, if provided.

Update June 18, 2023, 2:56ET PT: Updated the headline and added more details about the recent Rogan podcast episode.