Spotify and Joe Rogan: Should companies be held accountable for the content on their platform?

The Spotify controversy has once again sparked the age-old debate, should companies be held accountable for the type of content that is posted on their platform.

Let’s start with the legal argument, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act protects platforms from user-generated content, a law without which platforms from Wikipedia to YouTube could be sued into oblivion and would cease to exist. From a legal standpoint, platforms are not what their users post.

Social media is built on the premise that they are neutral entities empowering users to express their opinions freely. If platforms start censoring their users based on their opinion, the entire premise is lost, on the other hand, these platforms can also trigger anything from mass hysteria to health misinformation.

Recently, Pinterest was under fire for spreading misinformation about the efficacy and side effects of the vaccine. In response, the company took a swift decision and disabled search results related to vaccines. Pinterest’s decision highlights how important are such platforms when it comes to user research even on crucial subjects. Part of its appeal was how an average person was equally important as an authority figure and could contribute to a subject based on data or opinion. Pinterest argued that “health misinformation is contagious”, as the post was so popular it was their editorial responsibility to regulate it. In this case, the allure of virality broke down when it raised a concern to public health.

There have been numerous other cases where these giant platforms like Facebook and Pinterest have rushed to combat misinformation, especially when it comes to public health. We need to realize the socio-political power these platforms hold. Policymakers around the world are discussing if and how these platforms should be held accountable for the content they host. It should be a fine balance between letting users express themselves while protecting them from misinformation.

Coming back to the case of Spotify, the important distinction to draw is that YouTube is a platform whereas Spotify is a publisher. Even though anyone can upload a podcast on Spotify, the Joe Rogan podcast is paid for its exclusivity for its content on the platform. Hence, Spotify is endorsing Joe Rogan, thereby promoting covid misinformation and increasing vaccine hesitancy. It becomes important for platforms to take a stand or at least warn their users of the damage unsolicited advice from a public figure with no medical degree can cause.

As governments make efforts to ensure platforms wield their power more responsibly, democracy and social media’s once-celebrated freedom to publish should be taken into consideration too. Platforms should be held accountable but regulation is not the answer.