‘I Stand With Neil Young’
Music legend Joni Mitchell is the latest to ask for her music to be pulled from Spotify after criticising the continued spread of covid-19 misinformation across their content.
This comes just two days after fellow industry icon Neil Young raised the issue and pulled his music from the popular streaming platform for allowing “vaccine misinformation” to be circulated among its listeners.
Young himself cited The Joe Rogan Experience as the main culprit in the alleged misinformation, stating, “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
In an official statement posted on her website entitled, “I Stand With Neil Young”, she added the following:
“I’ve decided to remove all my music from Spotify. Irresponsible people are spreading lies that are costing people their lives. I stand in solidarity with Neil Young and the global scientific and medical communities on this issue.”
The 78-year-old “Both Sides, Now” singer also included an open letter to Spotify, signed by thousands of medical professionals and members of the scientific community, imploring the music site to “implement a misinformation” policy immediately.
Like Young – who is epileptic and type 1 diabetic – Mitchell also contracted polio at a young age, not to mention suffering a brain aneurysm in 2015 and has lived with Morgellons disease for over two decades, making both of them high-risk candidates when it comes to contracting the virus.
It's no surprise Joni Mitchell would team up with Neil Young to take a bold stand against disinformation to support vaccination. They both suffered from polio.
But there's also something very special about these two.
"Sweet Joni" by Neil Young:#GetVaccinated pic.twitter.com/zbalVgjoAA
— Mike Gerald Gibbs🏳️🌈 (He/Him) (@Mikeggibbs) January 29, 2022
This isn’t the first time Rogan’s speech content has been flagged for alleged misinformation; just a fortnight ago, doctors demanded action be taken by Spotify be after they claimed he “has repeatedly spread misleading and false claims on his podcast”.
Perhaps his most notable piece of misinformation came after he himself tested positive for coronavirus and began treating himself with ivermectin, a horse dewormer, among various other non-advised treatments.
It remains unclear when Mitchell’s music will be removed from the platform but Young’s discography has already been stripped back to just one album and a couple of singles.
The question is, will over artists continue to follow suit or will Spotify take steps to address the issue before it becomes an even bigger problem for their catalogue?
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