Misinformation WAR on Joe Rogan & Spotify 😳

So there's a big misinformation war going on. Joe Rogan, Spotify, and now Neil Young the musician has waded in. It raises some really important moral dilemmas and discussions around what is misinformation, around freedom of speech, around cancel culture, and I think it's really important for us to all use our platforms to discuss this. So putting you in the picture, actually what's happened is Neil Young has said, get rid of Joe Rogan or I'm leaving Spotify. And I actually am not sure if that's a smart move, uh, and I think there might be some slight hypocrisy in that. We'll come to that in a moment, and I'd love your thoughts. Because right now there is a war on information and misinformation. Would you agree that the word misinformation is almost being used as a weapon? Do you remember when Donald Trump used to say, "Check your facts," and it was almost used as a weapon? And then there's all these words now that become weapons: gaslighting, narcissism, misinformation. You know, these words become weapons, and it raises moral dilemmas around true freedom of speech. So I'm going to talk a bit about Neil Young, Joe Rogan, and Spotify and that scrap in a moment. But first things first is, how can an interviewer like Joe Rogan be accused of misinformation when he is interviewing guests? Surely if someone has an interview show, the assumption is that the views are of the interviewee, not the interviewer. And if he has to start disclaiming all of that, it seems somewhat ridiculous. So that's number one. Let me know what you think about that. Number two, the irony of when people try and cancel people like Joe Rogan, he only becomes bigger. So I don't know if you've seen Star Wars. Let me know if you've seen Star Wars in the comments. One of my favorite series ever. Obi-Wan Kenobi, he's having a lightsaber war with Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan Kenobi stops and he holds up his lightsaber and he says, strike me down and I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine. And allows Vader to strike him down so he can grow in the Force. Well, Joe Rogan's only growing and growing and growing the more that the mainstream media, or people with political angles or issues, or just people with their own strong opinions attack him. Now, do you know who the biggest media company in the world is? Is it Sky? Is it HBO? Is it CNN? Is it Fox? Is it fuck? It's Joe Rogan. It is Joe Rogan. Now look, I am not supporting or resisting Joe Rogan per se, but he's an interviewer. So to attack him and his show for the opinions of his guests, I don't think is right. And therefore, I don't think you can necessarily accuse him of misinformation. Of course, if he says something and he comes up with a view or an opinion, then okay. But is he not allowed his view or opinion? And why is Neil Young making an ultimatum to Spotify? Look, the guy's a, you know, legendary musician. Of course, whether you like him or not, he is fact. But like, I'm an author and I have written books and I'm published with the second or first or second biggest publisher in the world. Let's say someone wrote a book on the last 2 years of COVID and the history of the last 2 years, and my publisher published it. What gives me the right to go, right, publisher, you either cancel that book because I don't agree with it or I'm walking and leaving. What's the point? There's no point. What is the point in Neil Young saying choose me or Joe Rogan because Joe Rogan's having misinformation? What's the point? It's stupid. Now, by the way, Neil Young has just lost 60% of all of his royalty income on his music because he's walked off of Spotify because he's given Spotify an old an ultimatum. And this is what he said: thank you, Warner Brothers, for standing with me and taking the hit, losing 60% of my worldwide streaming income in the name of truth. But wait a minute, is that not a paradox? Because are we not in— are we not defending freedom of speech? Should we not have freedom of speech? Is Joe Rogan and his guests not allowed to have freedom of speech? Wouldn't Neil Young want freedom of speech in his songs to write whatever lyrics he wants? He wouldn't want people going to Spotify saying, 'Get rid of Neil Young or me because I don't like Neil Young's lyrics.' I'm not against Neil Young, but I think he's made a dumb move here. Let me know what you think in the comments, by the way, and please also hit the share button because I think these moral dilemmas and these paradoxes these, um, you know, political discussions. I mean, getting involved more and more in them because I do think these big cases will filter down. So for example, if Spotify would have axed Joe Rogan because Neil Young asked them to, because Neil Young didn't agree with Joe Rogan's views and called it misinformation, what— where does that— where does that take the rest of us and our publishing? And our content? Does it mean that someone bigger than us can go, don't like your content, and then our publisher is just going to cancel us? It's freaking crazy. But this is where— what the world is coming to. And we've got to push back on this cancel culture and these threats and ultimatums. As far as I'm concerned, I'm a published author, and anyone else who's a published author through my publishers is entitled to their own opinion and their own information in their own book. So surely Joe Rogan and his guests are entitled to their own content in their own show. How does it even affect Neil Young? How are Neil Young's sales and how's Neil Young's reputation going to be in any way affected? It's not. So he's just shot himself in the foot so bad. And he said, you know, in the name of truth. That should be a song. In the name of truth. He's probably going to write a song about it, but he won't say it because he's not on Spotify. But he is thanking Warner Brothers for sticking with him and essentially attacking Spotify for not sticking with him in the name of truth. So therefore, what he's saying is Joe Rogan is misinformed and therefore lying, and Neil Young is informed and therefore true. But that's bullshit. That's bullshit because none of us have all the information. Like, not even probably the heads of states have all the information. No one has all the information. Not even the prime ministers and the presidents have all the information. So, you know, at first when I was going to go live on this, I thought I'll just talk about it and offer both sides. But the more I talk about this, the more I think it's a bit of a dumb move on Neil Young's part. I'm sorry, I am a fan of Joe Rogan, but I'm also able to see balance. So let me just tell you the news. Um, Neil Young went to Spotify and said cancel Joe Rogan for misinformation or I'm leaving. Now fair play to Spotify, they didn't bend. Now they gave Joe Rogan £75 million, $100 million to have, have the ownership rights of his podcast, so I'm not surprised they weren't going to bend. Here's the interesting thing. Imagine if Joe Rogan was making Spotify no money and Spotify hadn't paid him 70-odd, 75, 77 million pounds, and Neil Young— and let's say he had generated a lot of money— would have said, get rid of Joe Rogan or I'm going. I wonder what they'd have done. I actually immediately after this reached out to, um, Daniel Ek, head of Spotify, for an interview, but, um, his assistant declined. Um, and by the way, I'm not accusing Spotify of anything, but I would have liked to have discussed that, that moral dilemma. Is this a case of Joe Rogan is bigger than Neil Young, bye Neil Young, or does Spotify, um, deserve some credit? Because Spotify have said, wait a minute, no, we're not canceling Joe Rogan just because you want us to. So sorry. And actually, I think that their comment was quite nice. Spotify said that it regretted Neil Young leaving and hopes that Neil Young will return to the platform soon. I think that's a very elegant response actually, because they could have gone, you know, kicked him out, um, bye, woke up, but, but they didn't. So I think that that was really interesting. But I'm really glad this didn't happen because this could have opened up a tidal wave of someone bigger than you wanting to cancel you because they don't agree with you. And is that not what we're pissed off about the mainstream media on? Let me know in the comments what you think, by the way. I'd love your thoughts on this. Aren't we pissed off with the mainstream media for misinformation, for controlling narrative, for withholding information, for feeding us, um, you know, maybe misinformation or propaganda or fearmongering? Are we not pissed off with the government about— for that? I'm sorry, the media, for that. It's not really fair to say— are we not pissed off with the machine? Let's call it the machine, because who knows how much politics and media are linked to this? Are we not pissed off with the machine for misinformation? So then why should we go and try and attack individuals for misinformation and one-upmanship and brinkmanship, essentially? So, um, Spotify responded to Neil Young by saying, we want all the world's music and audio content to be available to Spotify, um, users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place, and we've removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to COVID since the start of the pandemic. Ah, interesting. So they are removing content, so it's not fully freedom of information. Interesting. So hit the share button, let me know what you think in the comments. Oh, and by the way, do you know I have a podcast called Disruptors? I have got my biggest guest ever with the probably one of the biggest followings in the entire world coming tomorrow. This is massive news. I'm not going to tell you who, but, um, second highest grossing YouTube earner in the world last year. There's a big clue. So make sure you tune into my channels, um, either live tomorrow if you're watching live, or if you're listening and watching a recording, it will probably be published by the time you listen. Also, if you go to robmoore.com/pod, I have some podcast-related gifts. Obviously, I'm talking about Spotify, who are now probably the biggest podcast platform host. I'm talking about Joe Rogan. Oh, Nick's guessed it! Nick, how did you get her? No, I'm not saying. Um, but yeah, uh, I'm talking about Joe Rogan, biggest podcaster in the world. I'm talking about Spotify, biggest, uh, podcast platform in the world. They'll get a bit excited. So if you go to robmoore.com/pod, I've got some podcast-related gifts for you there. And also on the thank you page, you can subscribe to the new Disruptors, um, podcast. My podcast for 6 years was called Disruptive Entrepreneur. It's now called Disruptors, uh, because we are going for wider and bigger disruptive guests. There's still, um, entrepreneur-type content on Wednesdays and Fridays. But our guests on Mondays, our interviews are going to be bigger, badder, more polarizing, more disruptive, more controversial, more in the mainstream media news, maybe even more political. I mean, I interviewed Nigel Farage. I'd never really interviewed anyone political before, but I'm really trying to step up in this changing world and bring you, um, you know, these— I'm calling them moral dilemmas. And I think that we need to address these moral dilemmas because If we don't fight for our freedoms, if we don't fight for resistance against cancel culture, resistance against misinformation, etc., then, you know, where does that end? Is that the thin end of the wedge? So yeah, just, um, nip on over to robmoore.com/pod. Go do it now. There's 3 or 4 podcast and content creator gifts waiting for you there, and you'll be able to to on the thank you page, subscribe to the Disruptors podcast. I'm celebrating the 6th anniversary and the, the new rebrand. Since the rebrand, I've interviewed Carol Baskin of Tiger King, I've interviewed Nigel Farage, and I've got one of the biggest influencers in the world that I'm interviewing tomorrow. So already within a couple of weeks, we've really leveled up the size and scale of the, of the guests that we're getting. So, uh, yeah, you can get some gifts and subscribe to the links um, at robmoore.com/pod. Go do that right now. And then, um, just a quick summary, um, Neil Young made an ultimatum to Spotify to cancel Joe Rogan for misinformation, um, and Spotify, um, politely declined. And I think they handled it really elegantly, actually, and we're sorry to see Neil go and welcome him back, but they have, um, allowed Neil to remove all of his music. Neil Young has said he's lost 60% of his royalty income from coming off Spotify. But I think, personally think, it's a little bit of hypocrisy or a paradox whereby, um, you know, Neil Young doesn't want Joe Rogan. Well, no, Neil Yogan— Neil Yogan. Yeah, let's have a hype. Let's have a Joe Rogan versus Neil Young podcast episode. I'll be the host, and let's call it Neil Yogan. Freaking hell. Um, but clearly, um, Neil Young disagrees with Joe Rogan, and what's wrong with disagreeing? Like, why would I cancel my books from my publisher if I just didn't disagree— didn't agree with other authors? And what gives Neil Young the right to give Spotify an ultimatum? And now he's just shot himself in the foot and put his, um, you know, he's put Warner Brothers in a kind of a precarious situation. And now he's lost 60% of his revenue. But to assume that Joe Rogan is misinforming is to assume that Neil Young is informed. But how can any of us be informed? And why aren't we all entitled to our own views and opinions and to create our own work? What if Joe Rogan went to Spotify and said, get rid of Neil Young because I don't like his lyrics, or I'm leaving? That wouldn't be fair on Neil Young just because he didn't like his lyrics. I don't think Neil Young's lyrics are accurate. Get rid of Neil Young. Off Spotify, or I'm going, bye. It's wrong. It's actually wrong. I actually, you know, I'm going to reach out to Neil Young, see if I can get him on as well, because, you know, here's one thing, I don't like to judge people until I've, um, spoke to them themselves. I'm giving you my, um, sort of helicopter view, but until I've asked Neil Young a bit more why, I don't know why. And he might have some fair, reasonable motives, but these things have to be discussed. Um, so please hit the share button. Thanks for tuning in. Remember, if you don't risk anything, you risk everything. And I've got some special content and podcast-related gifts for you at robmoore.com/pod. Go there now. And you can also subscribe to the brand new branded Disruptors Podcast with my biggest guest ever, second highest grossing YouTube earner in the world today. Boom! robmoore.com/pod. See you later. Hit the share button. Thanks for following my work. I love you all.