PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle have hit out at Spotify after the streaming giant was accused of hosting anti-vaxxer content by Joe Rogan.
The couple have come under pressure to ditch their £18million mega-deal with the company over the US commentator’s views.
And in a statement released today, they said they have spoken with Spotify bosses about their concerns.
They said: “Since the inception of Archewell, we have worked to address the real-time global misinformation crisis.
“Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of 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 misinformation on its platform.
“We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis.
“We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does.”
SUSSEX STATEMENT
The platform is home to podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ – the top-rated show on the site – as well as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archewell Audio.
Rogan is accused of spreading life-threatening lies about Covid and vaccines.
The 54-year-old has stirred controversy with his views on the pandemic, government mandates and javs to control the spread of the coronavirus.
Just four months ago, Harry hit out at news and social media outlets for “peddling lies” about vaccines, claiming the only way to “overcome” Covid was to “break the system” of misinformation.
And he has also openly begged for vaccine equity, saying the vaccine should be distributed “to everyone everywhere”.
But royal biographer Angela Levin, who spent a year with Harry, said she believes he’ll never give up his Spotify deal.
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She told Sun Online: “Harry has been accusing many countries, including the United Kingdom for not doing enough to vaccinate people around the world in poor countries.
“Now here he is working and earning money from a company [who have employed someone] who is an anti-vaxxer.
“It doesn’t make any sense, but it does conform with his regular hypocrisy.”
Spotify has been waiting more than a year for Meghan and Harry to produce further podcast content, having released just one 35 minute episode so far.
But any material they produce from now on will have to compete for hits against Rogan’s show.
Ms Levin said: “I think there’s no chance Harry would leave [Spotify].
“One, because he has not left Netflix even though it has been incredibly rude about his mother and his father and all the Royal Family. He doesn’t seem to care.
“He also now has quite a reputation for being a hypocrite after lecturing us not to fly but flying himself on a private plane.
“He’s been very angry about [the lack of access to vaccines in poorer country’s] and is working with someone who is campaigning the exact opposite.”
