Spotify has removed dozens of old episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience, the insanely popular podcast that has been in the news recently.

Why? Because of some of the language Rogan uses in those episodes, which have been collated into a video currently doing the rounds on social media.

In light of this, some are calling for Rogan's removal from the platform, but Spotify is standing by the controversial figure.

Why Has Spotify Removed Some Joe Rogan Podcasts?

Spotify has removed 113 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience. These are the episodes that the streaming service considers to be the most offensive. This comes after discussing the matter with Rogan and his team.

We know this thanks to an internal memo that has leaked on social media.

As reported by The Verge, Spotify founder and CEO Daniel Ek wrote to employees explaining that, "Not only are some of Joe Rogan’s comments incredibly hurtful — I want to make clear that they do not represent the values of this company."

Ek goes onto reveal that Spotify spoke to Rogan and his team about "some of the content in his show, including his history of using some racially insensitive language." Following these chats, Rogan "chose to remove a number of episodes from Spotify.”"

Why Spotify Is Standing Behind Joe Rogan

In the memo, Ek also took the opportunity to defend Joe Rogan and his place within the service while also making it very clear that Spotify does not subscribe to the language used in some of these now-deleted episodes, saying:

"I think the important part here is that we don't change our policies based on one creator, nor do we change it based on any media cycle. Our policies have been carefully written with the input from numbers of internal and external experts in this space. I do believe they're right for our platform."

Ek does not believe that "silencing" Joe Rogan is the solution to the problem. Rogan has issued explicit public statements apologizing for his behavior in the past. Still, a lot of people are not happy, including many of the music artists that share the platform with Rogan.

Related: Why Spotify Chose Joe Rogan Over Neil Young

Some Artists Have Removed Their Music From Spotify

Some of the genres on Spotify.

Neil Young recently pulled his entire discography from Spotify in protest at some of the comments made by Joe Rogan and his guests about COVID-19. However, fans of the aged star don't need to worry, as there are other ways to listen to Neil Young's music.

Other musicians, including Joni Mitchell, have threatened to follow suit, and there are even rumors of companies threatening to pull their advertising from the show.

To combat the allegations of COVID-19 misinformation, Spotify has pledged to affix any questionable content with a warning, allowing creators to speak freely without putting any of their listeners at risk. Though some have questioned whether text-based content advisories are enough.