Harry and Meghan have waded into the row about Spotify spreading Covid misinformation.
A spokesperson for their Archewell foundation told Reuters:
Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of rampant mis- and disinformation every day. Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of Covid-19 misinformation on its platform.
The interventions comes after the veteran Canadian singer-songwriters Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from Spotify in protest at the platform hosting a popular anti-vax podcast.
Harry and Meghan have signed a series of corporate deals, including to produce and host podcasts for Spotify, as part of their efforts to make a living following their split with Britain’s royal family announced in 2020.
Spotify has yet to comment.
The Swedish company has previously said it worked to balance “both safety for listeners and freedom for creators” and had removed more than 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid in accordance with its “detailed content policies”.
Young objected to his music being played on the same platform as Joe Rogan’s top-rated podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience”.
Rogan has stirred controversy with his views on the pandemic, government mandates and vaccines to control the spread of the coronavirus.
Earlier this month, 270 scientists and medical professionals signed a letter urging Spotify to take action against Rogan, accusing him of spreading falsehoods on the podcast.