Former actress and Duchess of Sussex, Megan Markle, and Husband Prince Harry’s Archewell Foundation have issued a statement sharing “concerns” to Spotify about the “all-too-real consequences of COVID-19 misinformation on its platform.” Moreover, the statement conveys that they first gave rise to this issue to the company’s attention in April.
The pressure on Spotify has strengthened with an open letter from 270 doctors, nurses, professors, and health scientists also raising concerns about Covid pandemic misinformation on the music platform and pointing to a recent Joe Rogan episode, where his guest, Dr. Robert Malone, promoted unfounded conspiracy theories.
The royal couple has brokered deals with media companies like Spotify and Netflix. In December 2020 The Sussexes’s company, Archewell, formed Archewell Audio and signed an exclusive agreement with Spotify.
According to the reports, the Archwell deal is worth $a25 million. At the time, the streaming behemoth wrote that Archewell’s action of “embracing the extraordinary capacity of podcasts on Spotify while also seeking to elevate underrepresented voices is a testament to their appreciation for the potential of audio storytelling.”
In an announcement, On January 30th, An Archewell spokesperson indicated that there is a degree of uneasiness between the two parties.
The announcement reads: “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 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. 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.”