The head of the World Health Organization has backed Neil Young in his spat with music streaming service Spotify and Joe Rogan.
Young threatened to remove his music from the platform over Rogan's popular podcast, which has an estimated audience of over 10 million.
“Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them,” Young wrote. It had a responsibility to “mitigate the spread of misinformation on its platform".
He told his manager to “let Spotify know immediately today that I want all my music off their platform. They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
Spotify says it has "detailed content policies in place", and has removed over 20,000 podcast episodes since the start of the pandemic.
“We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon,” Spotify said. It has begun removing his music.
Rogan's deal with Spotify is worth an estimated $150 million.
Young's stance has found favour with Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO.
"Neil Young, thanks for standing up against misinformation and inaccuracies around Covid-19 vaccination," he said on Twitter.
Recently hundreds of doctors signed an open letter calling on Spotify to introduce a policy for dealing with Covid-19 misinformation because of Rogan's "concerning history".
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