Spotify’s Own Employees Fret About Alex Jones Appearing on Joe Rogan Show

(Bloomberg) -- Spotify Technology SA employees are raising concerns about an episode from the company’s Joe Rogan podcast in which the popular host discussed conspiracy theories with right-wing rabble-rouser Alex Jones.

Some workers have taken to the Slack chat service to discuss “The Joe Rogan Experience” episode, which included Jones exaggerating the risks of giving children the polio vaccine and saying that masks don’t help stop the spread of coronavirus. Spotify has taken down content from Jones before for violating its policies about “hate content,” but the service declined to remove this podcast.

In a company Slack channel called #ethics-club, which has more than 500 members, employees shared internal forms for reporting content that violates company policies and escalating complaints about content. Some employees shared instructions on how to transcribe the episode to find content violations to report.

Spotify has stood by the podcast so far. The company doesn’t ban specific guests, Chief Legal Officer Horacio Gutierrez said in an email to some employees. Spotify also weighs the context of commentary made on shows, Gutierrez said, according to a person with knowledge of the message.

“Not all of you will agree with every piece of content on our platform,” Gutierrez wrote. BuzzFeed News first reported on the email.

The Slack discussion by employees looking to report the podcast suggests there’s internal debate about the company’s stance, though not all employees agree the episode violated Spotify’s policies.

Even before coming onto Spotify last month, Rogan’s podcast had been controversial. The Jones incident will add to a wider public discussion about how stringently technology companies should the vet the content users put on their platforms. The company says on its website it bans material that “promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual” based on certain characteristics, but doesn’t say it removes material simply because it’s false.

Controversial Host

While Rogan recently signed a deal worth up to $100 million to make his podcast exclusively available on Spotify, the episode can also be found on Google’s YouTube, which also bans hate speech but doesn’t bar individual creators, and on Apple Inc.

YouTube said it has reviewed the interview and determined it didn’t violate its policies.

“Alex Jones’s channel was terminated and he can no longer operate YouTube channels, but he is still allowed to appear in other videos as long as they comply with our community guidelines,” said Alex Joseph, a YouTube representative.

Apple didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The discussion between Jones and Rogan covered a range topics, including accused sex-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, a New York Post story about a laptop allegedly owned by the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, and the coronavirus. At some points, Rogan pushed back on Jones’s arguments, such as when he claimed that 100% of children getting one type of polio vaccine are sickened with the disease, and his past pronouncements that the 2012 Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax.

“I’ve told you before, what you really need on your show is, like, a legit journalist who’s right next to you with a laptop going: ‘Alex, hold on, hold on. Just slow down,’” Rogan said.

Jones said in response: “I’m not trying to make stuff up 99% of the time.”

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