The medical and scientific experts slammed Rogan's track record of airing false claims about the coronavirus pandemic, vaccines and unproven treatments, calling it "a sociological issue of devastating proportions." Spotify, they say, has enabled him.
While audio apps so far have escaped the scrutiny that has befallen social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, the pressure on Spotify illustrates how podcasts have emerged as an influential source of misinformation... (continues)
(Thanks for the link, Ed.)
It is disheartening to see an influencer as big as Joe Rogan to be promoting misinformation. Censorship is a slippery slope, major platforms like twitter, although privatized, hold a huge responsibility for the first amendment right of freedom of speech.
ReplyDeleteThe circulation of misinformation is scary. A lot of people read statements on apps like Twitter or Facebook and take them as facts, when in reality, they are not. I am against misinformation and the spreading of it, as most people are. I do encourage others to voice their opinions while making the disclaimer that they are in fact opinions. We live in a society where people take what they like and leave what they don’t, when really we need to evaluate truths and facts as just that, truths and facts, and evaluate opinions as opinions.
ReplyDeleteI recently spoke with my friend about the Rogan controversy because I know he is an avid listener, and I was curious about his take on the matter. He said, "Rogan is not some mythical figure. It is basically as if your dad had a podcast." We want to hold Rogan to certain standard because of how big his audience is, but in terms of bioethical awareness, he is just your average guy. Maybe we shouldn't take medical advice from a guy who openly admits that he isn't an expert on anything except fighting. Really the bottom line for all of this is that I am not comfortable with podcast censorship. Information control might be on the side of science now, but one day the shoe will be on the other foot. It isn't hard to imagine that someday, good science will turn up something that contradicts the operating political regime's narrative, and an attempt will be made to silence it. I don't want to make any slippery slope arguments, but we ought to be careful about how much of our liberties we want to give up.
ReplyDelete