spotify support under complaints angry fans

So while we don’t fit neatly into one category, for instance, given our studios - Gimlet, Parcast, and The Ringer - where we are the publisher, I think our relationship with Rogan is clearly that of a platform, but to be clear, Joe is held to the same standards, rules, and policies that every creator on our platform is held to, no matter how big or how small, no matter how much we pay for that content. And it’s the same approach with other podcasters, like Dax Shepard and Brené Brown, too. It’s the same actually we have with our licensed music content. This is not an unusual position at all in the media industry. We don’t approve his guest in advance, and just like any other creator, we get his content when he publishes, and then we review it, and if it violates our policies, we take the appropriate enforcement actions. It is important to note that we do not have creative control over Joe Rogan’s content. And it’s also critical that we have diverse voices on our platform.

We want to get to 50 million creators and a billion users, and to be a true platform and achieve this ambition, it’s really critical that creators are able to use their voice independently. And this is about far more than just one voice, and to that very point, I want to remind everyone of our mission. And that means including enabling their ability to be alternative, or even controversial, because that’s usually what important creators are.

If that was the case, what creator would ever trust us? And that means biasing towards and standing by creators. We can’t write new or different policies based on news cycles or calls from individuals. And during this COVID-19 pandemic, these policies have resulted in the removal of over 20,000 episodes.

That said I need to make something crystal clear, even in the face of the criticism over the last few weeks, our policies are still something we stand behind. And that’s on me, and something that I will learn from. And these policies have been in place for years, but it was a mistake that they weren’t public. Regarding our platform rules, the fact that we hadn’t moved fast enough to make our policies available externally has made the situation especially difficult.

Spotify support under complaints angry fans