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Round 70 episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast mysteriously disappeared from Spotify on Friday, as noticed by JREMissing.com, an online software that tracks lacking episodes. The present (and Spotify’s relationship to it) have confronted heavy criticism over the previous few weeks, however there’s no clear connection between that and the lacking episodes, neither is there any instantly obvious hyperlink between the episodes that had been eliminated.
For anybody who’s taken the sanity-preserving step of muting the phrase “Joe Rogan” on Twitter, right here’s a short recap of what’s been occurring: Spotify, which has been the unique dwelling of The Joe Rogan Expertise for the reason that streaming large reportedly paid $100 million for the pleasure in 2020, has taken numerous warmth from individuals accusing Rogan’s present of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines (amongst many different issues). Musicians like Neil Younger, Joni Mitchell, and India Arie have pulled their music from the platform in protest, and Rogan himself has apologized to Spotify over the backlash it’s going through (whereas additionally defending his present).
Spotify has additionally addressed the controversy, making its content material moderation insurance policies public, and holding a tense city corridor to defend the corporate’s relationship with Rogan to staff.
All of that’s the reason it’s only a bit bizarre {that a} bunch of episodes have gone lacking with seemingly no clarification. (To be clear, the time period “a bunch” is relative — the present has over 1,700 numbered episodes.) A spot examine accomplished by The Verge on the info from JRE Lacking confirmed that the episodes had been certainly now not on Spotify, despite the fact that that they had been out there to subscribers as lately as final yr.
Spotify didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for touch upon why the episodes had been eliminated, and many of the explanations that instantly leap to thoughts don’t appear to carry water. The episodes eliminated on Friday aren’t new — the latest one featured Gad Saad and aired in 2018, and the oldest was episode 4 of the present from 2010. Provided that the episodes had been launched years earlier than the pandemic, they’re unlikely to include any of the COVID misinformation that’s induced the latest controversy.
It’s virtually definitely not a scenario the place the friends requested the episodes be taken all the way down to keep away from additional affiliation with Rogan, both — there are nonetheless seven episodes that includes Saad in Spotify’s archives, and a Twitter thread from Michael Malice appears to suggest he didn’t have something to do with the episodes he featured in being taken down.
This isn’t the primary time episodes have been faraway from the JRE archives — Insider stories that over 40 episodes disappeared in April final yr. It was unclear why it occurred on the time, however the scenario is even stranger now given the… effectively, the whole lot that’s occurring.
Joe Rogan additionally didn’t instantly reply to The Verge’s request for remark. We’ll make sure you let you realize if we hear again from him or Spotify.
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