#brodnig: Thank you, Neil Young!

You may have noticed the following scandal: Music legends Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have announced that they are withdrawing their songs from the streaming service Spotify. Because Spotify distributes the high-reach podcast of US talk show host Joe Rogan. During the pandemic, he repeatedly attracted attention with problematic statements. For example, he explained that he had taken the deworming agent Ivermectin against Covid-19, which medical professionals strongly advised against. Neil Young has now said that Spotify has to decide whether it wants him or Joe Rogan in the program. The platform has taken a bit of a turn: for podcast episodes dealing with the coronavirus, it will provide listeners with information on medical sources. Spotify has also revealed for the first time which rules it takes against medical false reports. For example, podcast episodes claiming that diseases such as Covid-19 or AIDS are an invention can be removed. Overall, however, Spotify’s rules are much more lax than, for example, Facebook’s requirements. Meanwhile, the list is very long, which Facebook prohibits false reports about the coronavirus and vaccination. For example, posts that falsely claim that any product is a guaranteed cure for Covid-19 can be deleted.

The dispute between Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and the online service Spotify shows one thing above all: we must also demand that smaller platforms take serious action against dangerous and false claims. Facebook Instagram When talking about misleading on the Internet, the focus is often on Mark Zuckerberg’s company (which owns the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp platforms). Of course, Facebook has enormous power and reach – which is why you are right to look critically at the blue giant. But the same applies: the problem of disinformation is cross-platform.

Even YouTube, also a giant on the market, is often less of an issue than Facebook and WhatsApp. The pandemic in particular showed how much the video platform is suitable for spreading outrageous statements. The fact-checking site Correctiv evaluated more than 1800 reports of potential disinformation about the coronavirus in May 2020. The analysis revealed at the beginning of the pandemic: “In the corona crisis, YouTube is the most frequently reported platform for questionable information by users. About 46 percent of the links that were sent to us with a request for a fact check lead to the video platform.“ At least I would assume that many users are now aware of how much nonsense is circulating on YouTube – for example, because they have already been forwarded such links.

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