Following Neil Young earlier this week, Joni Mitchell announced Friday that she is intends to pull her music from Spotify in protest of the platform’s support for people who spread misinformation and “lies” about the COVID-19 vaccines.
“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,” Mitchell said in a statement posted to her official site.
Mitchell didn’t mention podcast superstar Joe Rogan by name, but Neil Young specifically cited Rogan’s frequent promotion of misinformation about vaccines and COVID-19 as the reason he pulled his music from the streaming service.
“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule,” Young wrote on Monday.
“They can have Rogan or Young. Not both,” he continued.
Like Young, Mitchell is herself a polio survivor; both contracted the illness during the last major outbreak of the illness in Canada in 1952. That same year, the first effective vaccine against polio was developed at the University of Pittsburg by a team led by Jonas Salk.
Of course Young (and by implication, Mitchell) are far from the only people to call out Rogan’s podcast for vaccine disinformation. Earlier this month, more than 260 scientists, medical professionals, professors and science communicators signed on open letter urging Spotify to take action against “mass-information events” on its platform, singling out Rogan in particular.
The group of scientists pointed out how Rogan has repeatedly spread misleading and false claims on his podcast, ranging from discouraging vaccination in young people to promoting the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19. Read the letter here.
Representatives for Spotify didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from .
More to come…