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Spotify CEO Daniel Ek Confirms Removal of Joe Rogan Episodes

errantmind 5y ago
This whole debacle has made me think less of Rogan, not that he cares. IMO, he bent too far backwards to accommodate censors.
- nikolay 5y ago
  I feel the same way - he acts in desperation, which is quite the opposite of the public image he's been trying to build, and which gave him a big following.
  - kevbin 5y ago
    I mostly agree. But Rogan’s physical appearance and demeanor in his apology reminds me of Anthony Jeselnik’s shark story from “Thoughts and Prayers”. To paraphrase: it’s one thing to put your own job on the line to take a stand, it’s something else entirely to put the jobs of everyone who depends on you on the line.
    - nikolay 5y ago
      I didn't know he had a huge staff, but I'm pretty sure he saved enough to give them a nice severance package if things go that South and still have enough to retire and live a meaningful yet modest life... if there's nothing else for him to do, of course.
- noodles_nomore 5y ago
  I frankly don't believe in the sincerity of any public apology anymore. The more groveling it is, the more fake. These kind of apologies always result from large amounts of external pressure leading to the threat of some kind of financial repercussion. Especially in the case of Rogan it seems to me to go against the things he believes in, and he has echoed the view before that you shouldn't apologize to the woke mob. Unfounded conspiracy theory: Spotify might have found a way to leverage the civil rights act[1] to exploit some kind of loophole in their contract in order to subdue him. [1] https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-just-civil-rights https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-j...
adflux 5y ago
A sad day for the freedom of speech , when highly qualified phds and medical doctors are not allowed to challenge "the" science.
- daenney 5y ago
  Indeed. When hundreds of scientists send a letter raising concerns around “the” “science” published on a platform, it would be great if those platforms took that to heart.
  - rlt 5y ago
    Not scientists, not even mostly doctors, just 270 random medical professionals: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10418589/Most-270-signed-anti-Joe-Rogan-letter-demanding-Spotify-action-not-actually-doctors.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10418589/Most-270-s...
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- joelbondurant1 5y ago
  [dead]
- PikachuEXE 5y ago
  "This is for the record. History is written by the victor. History is filled with liars. If he lives, and we die, his truth becomes written - and ours is lost. Shepherd will be a hero, 'cause all you need to change the world is one good lie and a river of blood. He's about to complete the greatest trick a liar ever played on history. His truth will be the truth. But only if he lives, and we die." — Captain Price's speech in the intro to Endgame. https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/John_Price/Quotes https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/John_Price/Quotes
- dimator 5y ago
  Err, aren't the pulled episodes about his use of the N word, not about challenged science?
pyuser583 5y ago
Spending $100 million on content from marginalized groups. Over what time frame? With no time frame it’s a meaningless statement.
- buro9 5y ago
  Better would be to fund content to an equivalent number of listens.
- CodeGlitch 5y ago
  Also what is a "marginalized group"? Who gets to decide that - is there a list somewhere?
  - pyuser583 5y ago
    One reason feminists and LGBTQ groups are so powerful is that billionaires and senators have daughters and LGBTQ kids.
bradhe 5y ago
Man this post really pulled all the Rogan apologists out on HN.
- CodeGlitch 5y ago
  Does the character assassination not bother you? Next they'll come for someone you like.
  - karmakurtisaani 5y ago
    I don't buy it. Rogan got a public backlash for spreading misinformation. It's rather easy to verify. If they come for someone I like, there's probably a good reason for it and I'll have to re-evaluate if I should keep liking them. So far "they" came for only one entertainer I've enjoyed, Louis CK. And well, I can't really be upset over it.
  - locopati 5y ago
glanzwulf 5y ago
Never been a fan of Joe Rogan, I dislike his show and the man himself, but we can't just go silencing people. Just do what I do, don't listen to Joe.
- FlyingCapybara 5y ago
  You and me not listening isn't going to fix massive spreading of fake news.
  - glanzwulf 5y ago
    True, but there's nothing we can do about it other than telling platforms we don't want to listen to him. Unless of course we decide to go full authoritarian government and take a page from the CCP's playbook.
  - ryandvm 5y ago
    The problem with that line of thinking is that when you silence people for their speech it doesn't really solve the fake news problem, it just reinforces amongst the conspiratorial that there's something that you don't want them to hear. Only now they can't get the mainstream version of it so they descend into the "dark news web" and find even worse crap like InfoWars or One America News.
    - FlyingCapybara 5y ago
      It can very easily shut down a big part of fake news : https://www.counterhate.com/_files/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc0553604720b7137f8663366ee5.pdf https://www.counterhate.com/_files/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc05536047... We know we just have to turn off a few faucets to clean a vast majority of the oceans. It can actually solve a significant part of the fake news problem because an insanely small amount of people/entities are responsible for this mess. Concerning Inforwars : People using facebook/twitter/youtube alternatives are a very small minority. Infowars is the past, they've been banned from almost everywhere. I think the last only one infowars door to mainstream is their scam pills store on amazon... They use a lot of alternative platforms, but does it really matter ? ... They used to have youtube videos with dozens of millions of viewers, now check the selfhosted/bitchute/etc IW channels, they're a few videos hitting 1 million, at best. I think the last only one IW powerful tool is Telegram. I just checked the IW "social" page, the two IW Telegram only have 30k followers... Pretty much everything else are shady twitter alternatives filled with bots. Alex Jones problably still earn a significant amount of money, no doubt about it. But his massive influence started to fade since the 2018 bans. His income has gone down these last years and there's a good possiblity that the Sandy Hook lawsuits are going to shut him down. Can't wait. BTW, I don't think we should shut down Joe Rogan. I don't care if people wants to listen to the biggest moron on earth having a conversation with a dumbass psychologist about hard sciences, but Spotify should definitely set public serious rules and factcheck their content as much as possible. The situation is pathetic. Daniel Ek act like everything's ok with his libertarian bs statements, but we know Spotify is currently removing dozens of Joe Rogan's episodes. The last sources talks about 100 removed episodes... I guess the users/subscribers stats and the -20% drop stock are starting to bring Daniel Ek back to earth. Eh. Being honest, COHERENT, and rules/warning intros/factchecking/etc could be a good start. (there's probably a lot of broken english, sorry about that, I'm french)
stevespang 5y ago
sharken 5y ago
This is newsworthy, but among some of the news that shouldn't really be on Hacker News. It's quite clear that Spotify is trying hard to improve public relations as that directly affects their bottom line. And what better way to do it than making an example with Joe Rogan. But as mentioned, this news is better suited for Reddit.

This whole debacle has made me think less of Rogan, not that he cares. IMO, he bent too far backwards to accommodate censors.

nikolay 5y ago
I feel the same way - he acts in desperation, which is quite the opposite of the public image he's been trying to build, and which gave him a big following.
- kevbin 5y ago
  I mostly agree. But Rogan’s physical appearance and demeanor in his apology reminds me of Anthony Jeselnik’s shark story from “Thoughts and Prayers”. To paraphrase: it’s one thing to put your own job on the line to take a stand, it’s something else entirely to put the jobs of everyone who depends on you on the line.
  - nikolay 5y ago
    I didn't know he had a huge staff, but I'm pretty sure he saved enough to give them a nice severance package if things go that South and still have enough to retire and live a meaningful yet modest life... if there's nothing else for him to do, of course.
noodles_nomore 5y ago
I frankly don't believe in the sincerity of any public apology anymore. The more groveling it is, the more fake. These kind of apologies always result from large amounts of external pressure leading to the threat of some kind of financial repercussion. Especially in the case of Rogan it seems to me to go against the things he believes in, and he has echoed the view before that you shouldn't apologize to the woke mob. Unfounded conspiracy theory: Spotify might have found a way to leverage the civil rights act[1] to exploit some kind of loophole in their contract in order to subdue him. [1] https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-just-civil-rights https://richardhanania.substack.com/p/woke-institutions-is-j...

adflux 5y ago

A sad day for the freedom of speech , when highly qualified phds and medical doctors are not allowed to challenge "the" science.

daenney 5y ago
Indeed. When hundreds of scientists send a letter raising concerns around “the” “science” published on a platform, it would be great if those platforms took that to heart.
- rlt 5y ago
  Not scientists, not even mostly doctors, just 270 random medical professionals: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10418589/Most-270-signed-anti-Joe-Rogan-letter-demanding-Spotify-action-not-actually-doctors.html https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10418589/Most-270-s...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
joelbondurant1 5y ago
[dead]
PikachuEXE 5y ago
"This is for the record. History is written by the victor. History is filled with liars. If he lives, and we die, his truth becomes written - and ours is lost. Shepherd will be a hero, 'cause all you need to change the world is one good lie and a river of blood. He's about to complete the greatest trick a liar ever played on history. His truth will be the truth. But only if he lives, and we die." — Captain Price's speech in the intro to Endgame. https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/John_Price/Quotes https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/John_Price/Quotes
dimator 5y ago
Err, aren't the pulled episodes about his use of the N word, not about challenged science?

pyuser583 5y ago

Spending $100 million on content from marginalized groups. Over what time frame? With no time frame it’s a meaningless statement.

buro9 5y ago
Better would be to fund content to an equivalent number of listens.
CodeGlitch 5y ago
Also what is a "marginalized group"? Who gets to decide that - is there a list somewhere?
- pyuser583 5y ago
  One reason feminists and LGBTQ groups are so powerful is that billionaires and senators have daughters and LGBTQ kids.

bradhe 5y ago

Man this post really pulled all the Rogan apologists out on HN.

CodeGlitch 5y ago
Does the character assassination not bother you? Next they'll come for someone you like.
- karmakurtisaani 5y ago
  I don't buy it. Rogan got a public backlash for spreading misinformation. It's rather easy to verify. If they come for someone I like, there's probably a good reason for it and I'll have to re-evaluate if I should keep liking them. So far "they" came for only one entertainer I've enjoyed, Louis CK. And well, I can't really be upset over it.
- locopati 5y ago

glanzwulf 5y ago

Never been a fan of Joe Rogan, I dislike his show and the man himself, but we can't just go silencing people. Just do what I do, don't listen to Joe.

FlyingCapybara 5y ago
You and me not listening isn't going to fix massive spreading of fake news.
- glanzwulf 5y ago
  True, but there's nothing we can do about it other than telling platforms we don't want to listen to him. Unless of course we decide to go full authoritarian government and take a page from the CCP's playbook.
- ryandvm 5y ago
  The problem with that line of thinking is that when you silence people for their speech it doesn't really solve the fake news problem, it just reinforces amongst the conspiratorial that there's something that you don't want them to hear. Only now they can't get the mainstream version of it so they descend into the "dark news web" and find even worse crap like InfoWars or One America News.
  - FlyingCapybara 5y ago
    It can very easily shut down a big part of fake news : https://www.counterhate.com/_files/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc0553604720b7137f8663366ee5.pdf https://www.counterhate.com/_files/ugd/f4d9b9_b7cedc05536047... We know we just have to turn off a few faucets to clean a vast majority of the oceans. It can actually solve a significant part of the fake news problem because an insanely small amount of people/entities are responsible for this mess. Concerning Inforwars : People using facebook/twitter/youtube alternatives are a very small minority. Infowars is the past, they've been banned from almost everywhere. I think the last only one infowars door to mainstream is their scam pills store on amazon... They use a lot of alternative platforms, but does it really matter ? ... They used to have youtube videos with dozens of millions of viewers, now check the selfhosted/bitchute/etc IW channels, they're a few videos hitting 1 million, at best. I think the last only one IW powerful tool is Telegram. I just checked the IW "social" page, the two IW Telegram only have 30k followers... Pretty much everything else are shady twitter alternatives filled with bots. Alex Jones problably still earn a significant amount of money, no doubt about it. But his massive influence started to fade since the 2018 bans. His income has gone down these last years and there's a good possiblity that the Sandy Hook lawsuits are going to shut him down. Can't wait. BTW, I don't think we should shut down Joe Rogan. I don't care if people wants to listen to the biggest moron on earth having a conversation with a dumbass psychologist about hard sciences, but Spotify should definitely set public serious rules and factcheck their content as much as possible. The situation is pathetic. Daniel Ek act like everything's ok with his libertarian bs statements, but we know Spotify is currently removing dozens of Joe Rogan's episodes. The last sources talks about 100 removed episodes... I guess the users/subscribers stats and the -20% drop stock are starting to bring Daniel Ek back to earth. Eh. Being honest, COHERENT, and rules/warning intros/factchecking/etc could be a good start. (there's probably a lot of broken english, sorry about that, I'm french)

stevespang 5y ago

sharken 5y ago

This is newsworthy, but among some of the news that shouldn't really be on Hacker News. It's quite clear that Spotify is trying hard to improve public relations as that directly affects their bottom line. And what better way to do it than making an example with Joe Rogan. But as mentioned, this news is better suited for Reddit.