Censorship War 🤐 & Joe Rogan Response

So this censorship war with Spotify, Joe Rogan, and artists like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young is gathering great momentum. I've been reporting on it, and I think that this could be a landmark in the evolution of free speech, um, which is why I've been watching it closely and making my opinions very clear. Now I'm going to talk to you about Harry and Meghan wading in and their pressure. Going to talk to you about the response from Spotify, and interestingly, Joe Rogan has just published an official response as well. So I've done 3 or 4 videos charting the journey of this. You can watch them on my Facebook page if you want to see what's going on. I don't want to repeat myself too much, but quick summary is, um, Neil Young went at Spotify threatening them to remove his content if, uh, they didn't remove Joe Rogan's content, which he called dangerous misinformation. Um, Spotify stood strong and said no, and said that they have removed 20,000 pieces of content on COVID misinformation. And so Neil Young left Spotify, Joni Mitchell followed, and others have chipped in. Spotify's market cap went down from Reportedly between $2 billion and $4 billion. $2 billion in 2 days, which whether you like Spotify or not doesn't really seem fair to me. Um, surely we're all allowed our own opinion on our own podcast. So that's the story today, and I've been pushing hard to protect the free speech for Joe Rogan and not to pressure platforms into canceling others. And that it's easy for us not to take action when it's not us. But, um, you know, I think we should take action even when it's not us. I got a 90-day shadow ban on YouTube for saying it has been hard for small businesses. In fact, it wasn't even me, it was my guest that said it. The fact of the matter is that the C-word has been hard for small business. That's fact, not misinformation. I got accused of misinformation from YouTube and I got banned. 90-day ban. And people are getting banning left, right, and center on mainstream social media for saying the C-word, the V-word, the L-word, the P-word. Uh, and this is the, um, this is the thin end of the wedge. This is the splitting open of the dam where the waters will flood through if we don't stand up for the, the free speech of people, even when it's not us. So that's put you in the picture. And now get this, Harry and Meghan have waded in. So Harry and Meghan got paid reputedly $18 million for their podcast on Spotify. And I've heard reports that it's more than 18 million. And they waded in and said this: Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harm of rampant mis- and disinformation every day. We began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of the C-word and misinformation of it on its platform. Well, who defines what's correct information and misinformation? Now I'm going to tell you Joe Rogan's response because he made some good points. Stuff that was apparently misinformation 8 months ago is now truth. So what is misinformation? And who is the lawmaking— this is information and this is misinformation. So anyway, so Harry and Meghan, we have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platforms are made to help address this public health crisis. And we look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does. So basically, Harry and Meghan are saying to Spotify to change its policy, um, on its platform. Get this, they've done one freaking episode, they got paid $18 million, and I've heard it's more, to do a podcast series On Spotify, they've done one episode in two years and they think they can wade in and tell Spotify what to do. Who are they? Who are they to tell Spotify what to do when they've done one episode? Now look, no one wants hate speech. No one wants, you know, deaths based on what people say. But this has been going on for decades anyway. But where's the line? And what right do Harry and Meghan have to come in and wade in and say, hey, you know, Spotify, You know, you've got to change your rules on your platform because we want you to on misinformation as we define it. When they've done one episode yet they've got paid 18 mil. Do you know what? I've done 1,000 podcast episodes, so I've obviously— I'm in the wrong business. Do you know what? I'm going to delete all my episodes. I'm going to go to Spotify and go, uh, give me 20 million and I'll do one episode in 2 years. Yeah, uh, yeah, one episode, and then I'll come and tell you what to do with your platform, Spotify. Who are they? Now, if we don't allow both sides of the discussion and the debate— and it's not about information and misinformation, it's about this opinion versus this opinion, because that's what it is— and if we don't allow contrarian opinions and opinions against our own, then we've got way bigger problems than CV-19. Okay. So, um, the founder, the owner of Spotify, the CEO of Spotify has responded, uh, and Joe Rogan has responded. I'm gonna— I watched his entire 10-minute video on Joe Rogan's response to all this, and I'm gonna pretty much— I, I watched it very carefully, and I'm going to share it with you in a moment. Um, people are calling me Ewan McGregor, Eddie Hearn. Do I look like Ewan McGregor and Eddie Hearn? But thanks for tuning in. All right, so there's a lot of pressure on Spotify, and I'm not sure that this is right, um, because it's their platform. And a podcast— here's the thing that people don't understand about podcasts: an interviewer is not expressing their opinions. They're expressing— they're allowing the guest to express their opinions, and the guest is only expressing their opinions. And people say, 'I know, but I'm a scientist and it's a fact.' No, no, science is disproved all the time. So actually, you're expressing your view on your research, which may be right or may be wrong. And if you don't allow the other side, then that's not true science. Because surely science is about trying to prove a theory and disprove a theory and prove the theory and then disprove it or improve it. You know, we don't do lobotomies anymore. We don't do witchcraft anymore because it's nonsense. It's not science. So, and it, you know, our discoveries change. So we need to allow polarized but balanced debate, and we need to allow both narratives. When I say both, that's assuming that it's one side and the other. And so this is what I'm fighting for. Now, by the way, please hit the share button because I'm not fighting for Joe Rogan, I'm not fighting for Spotify, I'm not against or for Spotify, Joe Rogan, Harry and Meghan, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell. I am campaigning for your right to express your opinions and that you shouldn't shut someone down for theirs, and that they shouldn't shut someone down for yours, and that you shouldn't threaten an ultimatum. Neil Young, it was an ultimatum. You could even almost call it blackmail. Hey, Spotify, get rid of Joe Rogan or me. Um, and that puts Spotify between a rock and a hard place because they've just paid Joe Rogan $100 million, so they're not going to cancel him very easily. And maybe they get really good royalty from Neil Young, so that's essentially It's an ultimatum in a mild form of blackmail. That's not right. What right has Neil Young got to impose upon Spotify to kick Joe Rogan off because he doesn't agree? Because he's calling them misinformed, but does that not make him misinformed? And who says that Neil Young is right? And it's a misuse of power, in my opinion. Okay, so Spotify have responded. And Daniel Ek, I've been trying to get Daniel Ek on the podcast, The Disruptors. I've been trying to get Neil Young on the podcast, Disruptors. Haven't had any joy on that yet. But Daniel Ek, the CEO of Spotify, said, 'It's become clear to me that we have an obligation to do more to provide balance and access to widely accepted information from the medical and scientific communities guiding us through this unprecedented time.' So basically, he sort of caved a little bit there. Um, and what both Joe Rogan and Spotify agrees that they should have disclaimers. Like, you shouldn't have to have a disclaimer at the start of a podcast that the content in this podcast is not the opinion of the interviewer, it's the opinion of the interviewee, and it is an opinion only, and you should do your own research. I mean, come on, let me— surely that's— is that not implied anyway? Um, but that's now what they're doing. Now they're putting disclaimers on their podcasts, um, and they've republished their policies. And their policies say that creators should avoid content that promotes dangerous, false, or deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm and poses a direct threat to public health, which of course it's related to CV19, blah blah blah. Anyway, do you know 42 of Joe Rogan's episodes have been taken down by Spotify? They kind of went under the radar a bit, and a little while back Joe said there were a few episodes they didn't want on their platform And I was like, okay, I don't care. Now he's done 1,700 episodes, maybe he's not bothered if 42 are removed. But, you know, on the one hand, it's Spotify's platform, so you could say that they can remove what they want. On the other hand, who's in control of discussion here? Shouldn't we have equal and balanced discussion? All right, I'll do a summary in a minute. Before I do, please hit the share button if you want to fight for your own free speech, and if you want to fight to not be canceled not be censored and not be deplatformed, please hit the share button. This is Joe Rogan's response. Now, before I share Joe Rogan's response, let me just summarize. Spotify have been threatened by Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, get rid of, um, Joe Rogan or get rid of me. There was an open letter from hundreds of scientists, you know, um, cancel Joe Rogan's episodes. Pressure on Spotify. They didn't cave, which I commend them for, because it's not about content, it's about free speech in my opinion, and balanced discussion and debate. And we need to teach the world to have a better balance and discussion and debate and have your side. And if, you know, if we agree, we agree with respect, and we listen and we learn, and that's how we evolve and progress. So Spotify stood firm. Joni Mitchell, etc., Neil Young left Spotify. Harry and Meghan waded in. Basically saying they're concerned, um, of how Spotify are dealing with essentially Joe Rogan's content. They've been paid $18 million to do one episode. They've done one episode in two years. Come on, who are you guys? You've done one episode on Spotify and you're trying to leverage them and give them ultimatums? It's ridiculous. Brené Brown, she's paused until further notice her content on, um, Spotify, although it's— I'm not 100% clear why yet, so I'm not going to, um, speak on what I don't know about for sure. But she's— it's— that's happened. Okay, Spotify responded. They're tightening up their policies, they're creating disclaimers, um, and Joe Rogan has responded. Are you ready for Joe Rogan's response? Here we go. So Joe Rogan said that he believes it's the Robert Malone and Peter McCullough episodes on The Joe Rogan Experience that have created all this controversy. Um, he believes they're highly credible scientists and he wanted to hear their opinion. And, um, yeah, he stated that it's opinion. Um, he said the problem with the term misinformation, and he called it dangerous, um, is that many things that were misinformation in the past, um, you know, aren't actually facts. So, um, you You know, people— he cites on CNN and Newsweek stating that now people are saying that cloth masks don't work, but you'd get canceled for that. Or that if you get the, then you can still catch and spread the C-word. And he's saying this has now come to light to be true, yet you would be accused of misinformation and you'd probably get shut down or banned from social media. So he has a problem with the danger of this term misinformation. I think misinformation, the term, is being used as a weapon now. And it's not really about research. It's like, if I don't agree with you, I'm going to call you misinformed. Like, if I don't agree with news, I'm going to call it fake news. Check your facts, you know. Died with or died of— these words have become PR spin propaganda weapons, and I have a big problem with that. Anyway, back to what Joe Rogan's been saying. Um, Joe Rogan does not know if the people that he interviews, Robert Malone, Peter McCullough, and others, are actually right. I'm just a person who sits down and interviews people. Now, my YouTube account got shut down because I interviewed someone who said CV19 has been hard for small businesses. So that's not my opinion, that's his. I happen to agree with it, but it's his opinion, and I've been shut down for his opinion. Is he not allowed his opinion? And in reality, I think that's a fact for many businesses, by the way. So it's not information at all, and it's not even spreading any, um, news or anything. It's not a threat to public health to say that, um, CV-19 has been hard for small business. That's not a threat to public health or anyone's livelihood. In fact, it could actually, um, be a positive message to support small businesses. Yeah, I've been shut down for 90 days for it on YouTube. It's utterly ridiculous. Anyway, back to what Joe Rogan said. He says, I'm just a person who sits down and interviews people. Do I get things wrong? Absolutely. And I try to correct them. I'm interested in telling the truth and finding out what the truth is. I'm interested in talking to people with differing opinions, not just one perspective. This is massive. And actually, Joe Rogan does talk to people with differing opinions, and he has talked to scientists that, you know, are more pro the— I can't say those words. Um, he said that he's had doctors who do not agree with Malone and McCulloch, but you know, that's not really been, um, balanced in this media frenzy right now. Um, he said he doesn't want artists removing their music, and he's sorry that Neil Young has removed the music. He's a great fan of Neil Young. He's no anger towards Neil Young. Um, he says that both Joe Rogan and Spotify have agreed that there should be a disclaimer on some of these episodes that do address the C, V, P, and L. P and L used to mean something else in business, and C and V used to mean something different on the playground. And now these— now you can't say these words. It's utterly insane that you can't say the C word, the V word, the L word, the P word, otherwise you'll get shut down. It's utterly insane. Hit the share button if you agree, by the way, because nothing's going to change unless we get this message out there. So, um, there's going to be a disclaimer on Spotify. Joe Rogan thinks that's a good thing. Joe Rogan thinks he could have, um, doctors with more mainstream opinions after the controversial ones. So Joe Rogan's lesson is, if I have Robert Malone and Peter McCulloch and these controversial guests, he thinks afterwards he should go for maybe the more mainstream to give more immediate balance. That's the lesson he's had. And he says that podcasts are just conversations. And he's not always as prepared, and often the conversations just happen in real time. You know, when you have a 2 or 3-hour conversation, you can't prepare and sort of sift through every word. That's why people love podcasts. He said that's the appeal of his show. So he thanks Spotify. He's sorry it's happening to them. He's not mad at Neil Young. He's not trying to promote misinformation or be controversial. He says his podcast has become an out-of-control juggernaut He barely has control of it himself. He didn't even expect this, but he pledges moving forward to balance controversial viewpoints. He says it's a strange responsibility and he's not prepared or anticipated for this massive responsibility that he has. He just wants to create interesting conversations that he hopes people enjoy, and he thanks everyone for the support, and he apologizes for any issues this has caused. He even thanks the haters because he says that the hate is good for perspective. Perspective. So this is what Joe Rogan has said, and I think that's a balanced viewpoint considering he's under fire for the opinions of other people. So hit the share button, get this message out to the masses. We are fighting for someone else's freedom of speech, which will proliferate down to us. And if we allow ultimatums, like if we allow artists to give an ultimatum to Spotify to get rid of a creator because they don't agree with them, then all that does is the dam just smashes open. And everyone's good. Instead of everyone focusing on their own life and their own responsibility and their own creativity and seeking their own truth and trying to create their own facts and truth and information, instead of taking ownership, what they're going to do is go, I don't like that content, Spotify, get rid of it. I don't like that content, Apple, get rid of it. And that's the thin end of the wedge, and we can't let that happen. And you know what? It's not my freedom and it's not your freedom in terms of speech, but it will be. And it's easy to just pass it on and not care and not say anything because it doesn't affect us, but it does. So we need to protect other people's freedom of speech as well. And of course, where's the line? Hate, abuse, Um, I don't know, you tell me. Okay, so please hit the share button. Quick summary: I've done 3 videos, many of them are going viral. If you want to catch up on the stories of initially Neil Young, um, wading in and giving Spotify an ultimatum— it's Joe Rogan or it's Neil Young— Spotify stood firm and they were very respectful about, um, we're sorry to see you go, Neil, and we'll always welcome you back. Neil Young got rid of all of his content on Spotify, so did Joni Mitchell. Others too. Spotify's share price went down 2 billion, 6% in 2 days. Harry and Meghan, who've done 1 episode in 2 years and got paid 18 million for it, have weighed in going, we are concerned, we're concerned, and pressuring Spotify to change. What right do they have? They've done 1 episode, they get paid 18 million an episode. I'm clearly in the wrong business. And Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify, has then responded saying We've got an obligation, um, to provide balance and to have disclaimers. And he's republished his policies, um, and they're going to do disclaimers, and Joe Rogan's game for that. Uh, and then Joe Rogan's now responded with his statement, which is essentially he wants to create balance. It's opinions of other people, it's not his opinion, but they're just opinion. He's just trying to seek truth, um, and That's that. So thanks for tuning in. Hit the share button. Let's fire up the discussion. Let me know what you think. I'll probably, um, type the bullet points of Joe Rogan's response in the comments. Also, if you do enjoy my content, um, I'd, um, suggest that you go to robmoore.com/pod because, um, you can gain access to my podcast Disruptors there. And unfortunately now my podcast is my only channel, my only channel where I have full freedom of expression. So I, I, I put the P word in a title on Instagram, it got shadow banned. I put the P word on a title in Clubhouse, it got shadow banned. One of my guests said the C word in my YouTube channel and I got a 90-day shadow ban. That's what we're dealing with in the world right now. So I'm between a rock and a hard place where I feel like these issues must be discussed and we must not just bend over and shut up. Some people have been saying to me, Rob, why don't you just not talk about any of this and just carry on and, you know, just do your content over there on different subjects? Because if we all just do that, when does it end? But the only place now that you can get where I can say CV, LNP, and have discussions around it The only place you can access that now is robmoore.com/pod. Now I have 1,000 episodes over 6 years. My podcast is called Disruptors. I wanted to celebrate the 6-year anniversary by giving you some gifts, which are all at robmoore.com/pod. It's a bit sad that I'm actually having to say now you're going to go and need to join my podcast, The Disruptors, if you want my fully uncensored content, because maybe you prefer watching me on TikTok or Instagram or Facebook. But there's things I just can't say now unless I want to get deplatformed from everywhere, and I don't want to get deplatformed from everywhere. So move on over to robmoore.com/pod. You've got 3 or 4 gifts there relating to content, building a social following, monetizing social media, getting outsourcers and assistants, and sort of scaling your content, and, you know, being a full-time creator and monetizing it. So you can take all those gifts from me for free to celebrate the 6-year anniversary and, you know, the 1,000 episodes of my podcasts. On the thank you page, you'll see there you can subscribe on iTunes or Stitcher. You can of course subscribe on Spotify. Um, so just make sure you go and subscribe on the thank you page at robmoore.com/pod. I also recommend that maybe you go and review Joe Rogan, and maybe you go and support channels that are standing up for free speech and not bending to ultimatums. That's certainly what I'm doing. Obviously, I'm doing all of this content and, you know, supporting free speech and supporting creators who are trying to give balanced content and trying to allow both sides of the discussion without using language as a weapon. Misinformation. What misinformation basically means now is I don't agree with you, I don't like your content, and I want you to be banned. That is a sad state we're in. Where the word misinformation has turned into a weapon of hate, just like fake news did, you know, just like check your facts did, you know. All this spin and PR have died off or died with. We have to fight this. We really do. Hit the share button. Thanks a lot. Really appreciate you tuning in. Go to robmoore.com/pod. Get some 6-year celebratory gifts for my podcast disruptors. I'm trying to get a lot of these people on my show. I've got some very disruptive guests coming, so I'm going to step up into this arena. I'm going to take some risks of getting deplatformed, you know, um, in the interests of supporting free speech and allowing us all to exist and to learn from each other and to have opposing views without trying to shoot each other down, because that's a slippery slope. All right, thanks a lot. Hit the share button and remember this: if you don't risk anything, you risk everything. RobMoore.com/pod. Hit the share button. Speak up.