Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will not cut ties with Spotify despite an ongoing row over the spread of Covid misinformation on the platform, it has emerged.
Harry, 37, and Meghan, 40, said they had expressed concerns to the streaming giant about the ‘all too real consequences of Covid-19 misinformation on its platform’.
But the couple said they were committed to continuing their reported £18million deal with the tech giant ‘to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis’.
Under pressure: Harry and Meghan say they have expressed concerns to the platform
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had faced pressure to walk away from their deal with Spotify after musicians Joni Mitchell and Neil Young demanded that their songs be removed from the platform.
The singers were angered by the alleged spread of Covid vaccine misinformation on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast on Spotify, and said false claims over the jabs risked putting lives at risk.
Their high-profile criticism prompted speculation that other big names could follow their example and Bruce Springsteen’s guitarist Nils Lofgren announced his own music was also being removed.
Protest: Musician Joni Mitchell
A statement from the Sussexes’ charity Archewell was shared online yesterday by journalist Omid Scobie, co-author of the couple’s controversial biography Finding Freedom.
It said: ‘Since the inception of Archewell, we have worked to address the real-time global misinformation crisis. Hundreds of people are affected by the serious harms of rampant mis- and disinformation every day.
‘Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of Covid-19 misinformation on its platform.
‘We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis.’
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex had faced pressure to walk away from their deal with Spotify after musicians Joni Mitchell and Neil Young demanded that their songs be removed from the platform
Harry recently blamed ‘mass-scale misinformation’ for vaccine hesitancy and hit out at news and social media platforms for ‘peddling lies’ about vaccines. He has described online misinformation as a ‘global humanitarian issue’.
He and Meghan signed a multi-year deal with Spotify worth a reported £18million in 2020, saying they were ‘citizens of the world’ who wanted to ‘elevate underrepresented voices’. But so far they have only produced one episode of their podcast – a 33-minute ‘holiday special’ featuring Sir Elton John and James Corden.
The Joe Rogan Experience was the most popular podcast on the platform last year despite ongoing criticism that it featured false claims about Covid.
Rogan, a US comedian, has suggested that younger people do not need to take the vaccine. Last month he interviewed Dr Robert Malone, who was banned from Twitter for spreading Covid misinformation and became a hero in the anti-vaccine community.
The Joe Rogan Experience was the most popular podcast on the platform last year despite ongoing criticism that it featured false claims about Covid. Pictured: Joe Rogan
Earlier this month, 270 scientists and medical professionals signed a letter accusing Rogan of spreading falsehoods on the podcast and urged Spotify to take action against him.
Spotify, which reportedly paid more than $100million (£75million) for the podcast in 2020, said it aimed to balance ‘safety for listeners and freedom for creators’. It employs a team of experts to review its content, it said, and more than 20,000 podcast episodes linked to Covid have been removed since the start of the pandemic.
Spotify recently advertised for producers to make further shows with Harry and Meghan’s Archewell project, and said it wanted to launch ‘a new original show with Archewell featuring the voices of high profile women’.
Meanwhile Harry is to join Meghan’s friend, tennis star Serena Williams, in an online seminar about ‘the power of mental fitness’ on Thursday.
Meanwhile Harry is to join Meghan’s friend, tennis star Serena Williams, in an online seminar about ‘the power of mental fitness’ on Thursday
The US firm BetterUp, which hired Harry as its ‘chief impact officer’ last year, is to host a day of online lectures about how to be more productive at work.
BetterUp said the seminar was intended to fuel ‘personal and professional growth’ and would focus on the importance of ‘inner work’, including meditation and mindfulness.
A tweet advertising the day-long seminar featured the slogan: ‘Breakthroughs happen when you take a break.’
Harry vowed to become financially independent when he and Meghan quit their roles as senior members of the Royal Family in 2020 and moved to the US.
He took five months’ paternity leave when his daughter Lilibet was born in June and Thursday’s seminar is reported to be his first public appearance in ten months.
