Alex Jones on The Joe Rogan Experience
Activist Spotify employees received a big surprise this morning: a Joe Rogan interview with Alex Jones.
It’s unclear whether Spotify specifically reversed its decision to ban Alex Jones and other right-wing commentators. But the net result is the same: Alex Jones is now back on Spotify, thanks to a just-recorded interview with Joe Rogan.
Earlier this morning, The Joe Rogan Experience served up the surprise. Episode #1555, recorded just days earlier, popped up as a freshly-uploaded episode, with comedian Tim Dillon also part of the interview. So far, Spotify hasn’t uttered a word about the podcast episode — though activist employees are reportedly putting pressure on management to remove the interview.
Assuming nothing is removed, edited, or otherwise altered, the episode represents a complete 180-degree turn from Spotify’s earlier policy. Back in August of 2018, we first reported that Alex Jones’ InfoWars podcast was banned from Spotify. Rival platforms like Apple Podcasts also banned Jones.
Spotify’s ban was reinforced in September of this year, when the streaming giant refused to upload an earlier Joe Rogan interview of Alex Jones. Shortly after signing its massive, $100 million deal with Rogan, Spotify started migrating the podcaster’s previous episodes onto its platform — but omitted interviews with guests like Jones, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Gavin McInnes.
Those archived interviews remain missing. But this just-uploaded interview is freely available.
With the newly-recorded episode, Rogan is clearly making a statement.
Earlier, activist Spotify employees demanded serious changes to The Joe Rogan Experience. That included demands to remove at least one episode viewed as transphobic, while also securing editorial oversight on all future (and past) episodes from Rogan. Spotify did remove multiple episodes from Rogan’s back-catalog of shows, but so far hasn’t removed any newer uploads or acquiesced to other demands. That includes the recent Jones interview.
“Alex Jones!” Rogan proclaimed at the beginning of the episode, before launching into a broader statement about censorship.
“People criticize me for being friends with you and for talking to you,” Rogan noted. “And they also criticize me for not supporting a lot of these people that got banned and de-platformed. My take on it has always been, the best way to counter wrong speech is correct speech. When someone says something that’s wrong, or when someone says a conspiracy theory that’s not accurate, the best way to counter that is to do better speech — to have people say the accurate information, and to let the truth rise to the top.”
“When you start censoring people, the problem is it’s a f—king slippery slope,” Rogan continued.
“And there’s a reason why we’re so steadfast about protecting the First Amendment in this country. And people don’t think it applies to tech, because these tech institutes are private businesses and they should be able to do whatever they want with their private business.
“The problem is, that f—king slippery slope has gone from banning you, Alex Jones, off of Twitter a year-and-a-half ago, to getting the White House Press Secretary banned on Twitter because she posts something from The New York Post. Which is crazy!
“What the Post printed, what they put out there, is accurate.”
The Rogan episode is also available on YouTube. Spotify will become the exclusive platform for The Joe Rogan Experience starting next year.
Alex Jones is a cancer to society. I grew up the town over from Sandy Hook. I know people who were murdered that day. Yet Alex Jones claims I’m lying…?!?
What is wrong with this world??? This lunatic does not deserve a platform. Shame on Joe Rogan. Shame on Spotify for supporting hate speech…there is a special place in Hell for Alex Jones.
Alex Jones is a grotesque individual, yet he has the right to free speech.
Louis Farrakhan is a disgusting puke, yet he has the right to speak in the US.
You leftist democrats are dangerous. Your platform is exactly how Hitler took control of Germany.
Extremist right groups are actually the direct comparison to Hitler Germany. Get it right after you pick up a history book and read it…if you know how.
He doesn’t know how to read. He’s a moron.
I resemble that comment.
Wrong. Squash speech, forced political clothing (masks), and public shaming are the playbook of democrats and Nazis. Own it, commie puke.
masks are only political to those people who are ignorant.
democrats, nazis, commies – you’re a mess of a person, trying to connect these things in any way that is sane. seek help.
So you support Louis Farrakhan?
Nobody said that. Reading comprehension. Try it some time.
“Hey Joe, where you going with that gun in your hand”?
Alex only pondered the idea that sandy was a setup because he had multiple sources from other people that had good leads. AS SOON AS THE CLAIMS FELL THROUGH, ALEX APOLOGIZED AND SAID “IM SORRY, MY SOURCES WERE FALSE. I NEVER MEANT TO HARM ANYONE ONLY EXPOSE POSSIBLE CORRUPTION.” WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT, HE MANNED UP TO HIS SCREW UP IMMEDIATELY A LOOOONG TIME AGO. WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF ZOMBIES LIKE YOU CONSTANTLY BROUGHT UP YOUR BIG MISTAKE AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN???? GET OVER IT, MOVE ON
Here’s the thing, though, an apology after the fact is meaningless. Instead of spreading false information up front, he should have verified his sources. He has done this multiple times. He know he has a wide listening audience and sheep who hang on his words then take it as fact. His irresponsible actions of spewing false claims before knowing their validity was damaging. Along with the rights of free speech come responsibility, and he has consistently shown a lack of that.
Fuk.democrat.nazi.Brownshirts.
Suppression of speech is exactly how Hitler rose to power.