"I do not believe that silencing Joe is the option": Spotify CEO apologises to employees over Joe Rogan N-word controversy in official letter

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek recently addressed Joe Rogan’s controversial usage of the n-word in his since-deleted episodes of the JRE podcast. The music streaming firm has reportedly removed over 70 episodes of the controversial podcast, which allegedly violated the company’s policies.

As per the web tool JRE Missing, the platform has removed almost 113 episodes of the podcast. This includes episodes with guests like Chris D’Elia, Theo Von, Michael Malice, and more. Last week, African-American singer-songwriter India Arie announced the removal of her musical catalog from Spotify over Rogan’s racial slurs in past episodes.

In an internal memo obtained by Axios, Ek addressed the controversy and apologized to the employees. He said,

“I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer… canceling voices is a slippery slope.”

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What did Spotify CEO Daniel Ek say about JRE host Joe Rogan?

Ek revealed his plans to invest around $100 million to produce and promote musical content “from historically marginalized groups.” The platform reportedly acquired the rights of Joe Rogan’s podcast in 2020 for over $100 million.

The CEO also addressed how the firm discussed with Rogan’s team about removing some episodes of his podcast, which reportedly included ones that had racial slurs.

The music streaming platform’s CEO also said,

“While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more.”

He went on to reiterate his point from last week’s Town Hall meeting of the firm. The Spotify CEO disclosed that the outline of their deal with Joe Rogan only gives them content exclusivity. Ek added that the music streaming platform is not the publisher of the JRE podcast.

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Daniel Ek’s previous comments on Joe Rogan’s JRE podcast on Spotfiy

While White House press representative secretary Jen Psaki commented that Spotify could do more to prevent misinformation in the content on their platform, Daniel Ek is satisfied with the company’s response to the controversy.

Last week, in the firm’s town hall meeting, Ek said,

“I think the important part here is that we don’t change our policies based on one creator nor do we change it based on any media cycle or calls from anyone else.”

Following the massive boycott, the streaming giant introduced a disclaimer feature for content with COVID information, which would link to resources on the pandemic. The company also updated its policies to prohibit content that “promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information.”

Prior to Ek’s public comments about the backlash over JRE, the podcast host Joe Rogan also publicly apologized for his usage of the n-word in the past.