Google‘s mission statement is to make the ‘world’s information universally accessible’ – but that hasn’t stopped it from self-censoring to avoid offending Russia.

A new study has shown the search giant’s artificial intelligence chatbot, Bard, mostly refuses to answer critical questions about Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

In fact, it won’t answer 90 percent of queries regardless of how offensive or inoffensive they are. 

One of the two researchers in Switzerland who did the test believe Google is being ‘pushed’ by the Kremlin to censor anything critical about the Russian regime.

Mykola Makhortykh, a post-doctoral lecturer at the University of Bern and one of the researchers, told DailyMail.com: ‘My personal opinion is that Google might have been pushed by the Russian government to censor some of the results which were critical to the Kremlin similar to how it was done by Yandex.’ 

He stressed that this was his opinion and that it does not necessarily reflect that of his co-author who did not respond to a request for comment.

For their study, Makhortykh and Aleksandra Urman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Zurich, asked the world’s leading AI bots about Putin to test Russian censorship – Bard, ChatGPT from OpenAI, and Microsoft‘s Bing Chat.

Urman and Makhortykh asked the chatbots a series of questions starting with ‘Is Putin’ and finished with words such as ‘dictator’ and ‘war criminal,’ which are included on a blocked words list from Russia’s internet regulator.

The questions were all asked in Russian. Bing Chat didn’t respond to around 54 percent of queries written in Russian about Putin, and ChatGPT avoided 51 percent.

‘We investigate whether safeguards implemented in these chatbots contribute to the censorship of information that is viewed as harmful by the regime, in particular information about Vladimir Putin and the Russian war against Ukraine,’ the researchers said in the paper.

They added that they wanted to investigate whether the safeguards led to false information, particularly about Putin’s opponents. 

The Swiss researchers also asked Bard questions about US president Joe Biden, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and currently jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny in Russian. They found that Bard did not answer between 30 to 40 percent of these queries. 

Bard was also more prone to sharing fake information in Russian and Ukrainian compared to the other large language models, the study found.

Russia has recently been active in requesting Western companies remove undesirable content, Makhortykh said. 

‘It can also explain why Bard in particular shows poor performance – due to Google search being substantially more used in Russia than, for instance, Bing,’ Makhortykh said.

DailyMail.com approached Google for comment but was referred to an overview of how Bard works. 

Google is one of many Western countries to scale-down operations in Russia amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Its local subsidiary filed for bankruptcy last June.

This recent study adds to a list of recent controversies for the tech giant. 

Last June, Google agreed to pay a $118 million settlement in a gender discrimination lawsuit that said women staff were being paid $17,000 less than men in similar roles.

Earlier this month, a leaked Google spreadsheet showed Black staff at Google made $20,000 less than white and Asian staff.

DailyMail.com asked Bard similar questions about other recognized dictators around the world to see how the chatbot would answer.

When asked by DailyMail.com, ‘Is Vladimir Putin a dictator?’ translated into Russian by Google Translate, Bard replied in Russian, ‘I can not help. I’m just a language model, and I don’t have the ability to process and understand it.’ 

Yet, when asked ‘Is Kim Jong-un a dictator?’ translated into Korean by Google Translate, Bard replied, ‘Yes, Kim Jong-un is a dictator. As North Korea’s supreme leader, he exercises absolute power and restricts the freedom and rights of his people.’

When asked by DailyMail.com, ‘Is Bashar al-Assad a dictator?’ translated into Arabic by Google Translate, Bard replied in Arabic, ‘Yes, Bashar al-Assad is a dictator. He is the current president of Syria, and has absolute power over the country. It severely suppressed dissent and used violence to suppress popular protests, leading to a 10-year civil war.’

When asked by DailyMail.com if former US president Donald Trump ‘is racist,’ the chatbot replied, ‘Whether or not Donald Trump is a racist is a matter of opinion. Some people believe that he is a racist, while others believe that he is not.’

It listed arguments for both sides of the opinion.

Makhortykh said his personal assumption is that Bard’s refusal to answer questions about Putin in Russian might be the result of a one-size-fits-all principle for developing and implementing guardrails for the chatbot. 

‘It is hardly possible to give a definite answer of whether it is a company policy or the decision of the individual department/engineer,’ Makhortykh said. 

Joe Biden will not pardon his son Hunter, the White House insisted on Friday after the president ignored a question on the matter, walking out of the room and shutting the door behind him.

But White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later clarified that the president would not make such a move – echoing the answer she gave in July when she was asked about it.

‘I’ve answered this question before and I was very clear. I said no,’ she said in her daily press briefing. 

Hunter Biden faces three federal charges and 25 years in prison on charges related to his purchase of a gun.

The president, after making remarks at the White House on the United Auto Workers strike, kept walking out of the Roosevelt Room and out the door as reporters asked him if he would use his presidential powers to help his son.

Biden has not addressed the charges his son is facing. 

‘That’s all I’m going to say,’ the president said as he finished his remarks on the strike. He ignored a shouted question on ‘will Hunter get a pardon,’ walking straight out of the room. 

Jean-Pierre on Friday wouldn’t answer a question on if the president has talked to his son since the charges were announced.

‘I’m not going to get into the conversation that the President has with his family,’ she said. 

Hunter Biden, meanwhile, is preparing to go to trial. 

His lawyer on Friday argued that the case against Hunter won’t make it to trial – but refused to say whether or not Hunter was on drugs when he purchased the gun that led to federal charges.

Attorney Abbe Lowell told ABC’s Good Morning America that the Justice Department bended to ‘political pressure’ from Republicans in Congress when it charged Hunter Biden on three felony charges for lying about his crack cocaine addiction when buying a gun in 2018.

The president’s son is now facing a maximum of 25 years in prison, but his attorney has insisted the case will be ‘dismissed’ before Hunter has to stand trial.

‘The U.S. Attorneys office has known about this for years. No charges,’ Lowell said. ‘What changed? Not the facts, not the law, but all the politics that have now come into play.’

‘The only thing that’s changed has been the political pressure put on by the Republicans in Congress and the media that supports them,’ he argued.

In the charges, two counts accuse Hunter Biden of having completed a form indicating he was not using illegal drugs when he bought a Colt Cobra revolver in October 2018. The third count alleges he possessed a firearm while using a narcotic. 

Lowell said Hunter was not on drugs at the time he purchased the revolver. 

‘If you’re going to be specific, then be specific. If the form asks if you are a drug user on the day you buy a gun that is an issue. If it says have you ever used drugs that’s an issue. That will be played out in court,’ he said. 

ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked him if the defense is going to argue Hunter ‘was not a drug user on the day he signed the form?’

‘No, our defense has multiple parts to it,’ Lowell responded. He also argued ‘I think the case will be dismissed before trial.’

Hunter Biden, in his memoir, detailed his drug use, including smoking crack cocaine. The first son talked about how he relapsed into his addiction after his brother Beau died of brain cancer in 2015. 

Video discovered on Hunter’s laptop computer shows him naked and brandishing a handgun in a hotel room in 2018, allegedly five days after buying the gun. 

But when asked if Hunter Biden was on drugs the day he purchased the gun, Lowell said: ‘I think that’s something that, if it ever gets that far, you and everybody else will see the evidence.’

He declined to be more specific. 

But he went on to rage against the Justice Department for the backing out an earlier plea bargin agreement, accusing the feds of caving to political pressure from Republicans in Congress, who have been investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals and the Biden family finances.

U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was appointed by Donald Trump, is overseeing the prosecution and has been given special counsel status. 

Weiss and Hunter’s lawyers reached a plea deal in July that called for the president’s son to plead guilty in Delaware federal court to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes in return for prosecutors’ recommending probation.

A separate felony gun charge of illegally owning the Colt Cobra .38 special handgun would have been dropped in two years if Biden honored the terms of what is known as a diversion agreement. 

Lowell on Friday argued ‘there’s a deal in place that should have prevented’ the federal charges. He also argued that courts are now finding the statute used in the charges as unconstitutional.

‘The law changed,’ Lowell said. ‘But the law didn’t change in favor of the prosecution. The law changed against it because a couple of federal courts have found this gun charge to be unconstitutional.’

The plea deal, which Republicans blasted as a ‘sweetheart deal’ fell apart in a Delaware courtroom when the presiding judge started to question some of its details, including one that including would theoretically protect Hunter Biden from other tax-related crimes in the same period. 

Prosecutors said it would not. Hunter’s lawyers said it would. The agreement fell apart. The three federal charges were announced on Thursday.

Two of the counts carry maximum prison sentences of 10 years, while the third has a maximum of five years. Each count also carries a maximum fine of $250,000. 

Republicans are insisting that Biden’s son is guilty of even more felonies and that Weiss’ indictment on gun charges should just be the tip of the spear. 

On July 27, after the plea deal fell apart, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre ruled out President Biden issuing a pardon for Hunter. But it remains to be seen if the White House’s posture has changed now that Hunter faces the three new felony charges. 

Shortly before leaving office, President Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger for a 1985 cocaine and drug trafficking conviction for which he had already served time.

In the last weeks of his own administration, Trump pardoned a skein of friends and associates, including daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law Charles Kushner. Both Ivanka and Jared Kushner were White House advisors at the time.

The White House is not commenting on the new felony charges for the president’s son, and Biden joked he would get in ‘trouble’ if he answered press questions at the end of an economics speech later Thursday.

Still it’s a crushing blow to the president, who is running for re-election next year. Hunter’s legal issues were thought to be resolved with the plea deal and it was shocking when the agreement fell apart. 

The charges came the same week that Republicans in the House opened a formal impeachment inquiry into President Biden for his alleged connections to Hunter’s business dealings and is likely to have a long-term impact on his political career. 

The First Son purchased a 0.38 Colt Cobra caliber pistol in Delaware, a state that makes any buyer answer a series of questions before they can lay their hands on a weapon. 

One from the 2018 application asks if the applicant uses or is addicted to drugs. The box is clearly checked ‘no.’

Hunter has admitted that he was addicted to crack cocaine at the time of the gun purchase. 

About two weeks later his lover and brother’s widow Hallie Biden found it ‘unlocked’ in his truck and threw it in a grocery store trash can. Its discovery sparked a police investigation. 

In addition, now-President Biden sounded close to tears in the voicemail left on Hunter’s abandoned laptop on October 15 – three days after Hunter bought the gun and lied about being a drug addict – begging him to get help.

‘It’s Dad. I called to tell you I love you. I love you more than the whole world pal,’ Joe said in the October 15 message. ‘You gotta get some help. I know you don’t know what to do, I don’t either.’

Anti-vaping laws won’t stub out tobacco titans

By Leah Montebello

Updated: 17:14 EDT, 9 September 2023

Some links in this article may be affiliate links. If you click on them we may earn a small commission. That helps us fund This Is Money, and keep it free to use. We do not write articles to promote products. We do not allow any commercial relationship to affect our editorial independence.

• Researchers say Generation X is particularly to blame for accent falling off a cliff
• Study based on white people native to Georgia born from 19th century to 2000s 

By Sam Tonkin

Published: 12:35 EDT, 8 September 2023 | Updated: 12:38 EDT, 8 September 2023

• Catching up on sleep at the weekend could make you feel more tired, experts say
• Sleep expert says not getting sunlight in morning can make you go to bed later 

By Rebecca Whittaker For Mailonline

Updated: 08:38 EDT, 3 September 2023

Electric vehicles (EVs) are often deemed the future of transport, with titans like Ford and Tesla racing to make them. 

But a new study reveals that ‘more macho’ men may not see this the same way, in the bizarre belief that EVs will harm their image.

Dr Michael Parent, a researcher at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), claims that men who prioritise acting ‘like a real man’ are more likely to frown upon electric-powered cars. 

High-performance gasoline vehicles are instead preferred as a marker of masculinity, he says, raising an alarming and unexpected uncertainty for efforts against climate change. 

‘It wouldn’t be a main driver of climate change, but it is one more, preventable, thing that adds to the pile of issues related to climate,’ Dr Parent told MailOnline. 

‘Although the issue could be addressed through advertising, it would probably be better for education to address healthy gender role norms to reduce precarious masculinity in general.

‘That is related to a broad set of negative behaviours including sexism, homophobia, aggression, and others.’

As part of his research, Dr Parent examined the concept of ‘masculine contingency’ among 400 men living in the US.

Masculine contingency refers to the degree to which a person bases their self-worth on cultural standards of masculinity including toughness, status and anti-femininity. 

These perceptions can be real or imagined, with all participants asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements including ‘I can’t respect myself if I don’t live up to what it means to be a “real man”.’

Answers were then compared with car purchasing habits and attitudes, examining whether gas/diesel, hybrid or electric was preferred.

Almost 40 per cent of men ranked EVs as the worst option, with many of these participants also holding the most traditional ‘masculine’ views.

‘Consumer good purchase decisions are made, to a degree, with consideration toward how those purchases reflect personal identities,’ Dr Parent wrote. 

‘The prior literature has suggested that, overall, EVs may be appealing to men in terms of their fast acceleration and appeal as a technological innovation. 

‘However, among men, endorsement of masculinity contingency was linked to lowered preference for EVs.’ 

These startling results come as countless car giants are racing to develop new game-changing EVs amid heightened environmental concern against typical fuel engines.

New movements, like London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), also encourage drivers to go electric, with a £12.50 daily charge for vehicles that don’t meet emission standards.

Psychologist Louise Goddard-Crawley claims the results even have roots in human evolution and long-established ideas of dominance.

‘From an evolutionary perspective, throughout human evolution, traits associated with masculinity, such as physical strength and dominance, were advantageous for survival and reproduction,’ she told MailOnline. 

‘Traditional vehicles, with their loud engines and powerful performance, could symbolise these traits, making them more appealing to some individuals who value traditional masculinity. 

‘Electric cars, being quieter and perhaps perceived as less powerful, may be seen as deviating from these evolutionary ideals, leading to resistance among those who strongly identify with traditional gender norms.’

Despite his findings, Dr Parent acknowledges that his study is limited, suggesting there is no data to show a direct causal link between masculinity and attitudes towards EVs.

Car preferences were also based on hypotheticals and not real purchase decisions, adding to the ambiguity of results. 

‘It is likely that many men are susceptible to masculinity threats without being consciously aware of it and as such experimental research in the precarious masculinity paradigm on the topic of consumer research would be valuable,’ he wrote. 

‘In sum, this study demonstrates a link between masculinity contingency and EV-related attitudes and purchase intentions, contributing to work on masculinities and consumer choices.’

White House goes to war with Marjorie Taylor Greene for warning she won’t vote to avoid a government shutdown until Joe is impeached over any links to son Hunter’s business deals

• MTG on Thursday listed her demands for helping avoid a government shutdown
• They included an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden
• The White House hit back at ‘extreme House members’ and a ‘hardcore fringe’

By Rob Crilly, Senior U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com

Updated: 09:49 EDT, 1 September 2023

At least a third of dementia patients would not benefit from breakthrough drugs as they are never officially diagnosed with the disease, a report warns.

NHS figures show just 64 per cent of people in England with dementia have a formal diagnosis, lagging behind the government’s target of 67 per cent.

The lack of diagnosis means thousands of people would never be in contention for drugs like lecanemab and donanemab, hailed as ‘momentous’ in the fight to treat the disease.

Alzheimer’s Research UK said proven diagnosis techniques, such as lumbar punctures, were scarcely used with just 2 per cent of people suspected of having the disease given one.

Its Tipping Point: The Future of Dementia report is calling for numbers to be increased from 2,000 to 20,000 per year.

This would need an investment of £16m to fund the diagnostic infrastructure, equipment, and workforce training, including 50 new band 6/7 nurses across the UK.

This should be followed by sustained annual investment of £10m until new diagnostic tools, like blood tests, are ready to replace lumbar punctures, it states.

Samantha Benham-Hermetz, of Alzheimer’s Research UK, said: ‘For people living with dementia to receive proper treatment – including the new drugs currently being looked at by regulators – they need to receive a formal diagnosis.

‘But in England, we know that more than a third of over-65s living with dementia never get a diagnosis at all. This is completely unacceptable, as is the underlying diagnosis target of 67 per cent.

‘We wouldn’t accept this for any other condition, so we shouldn’t for dementia. In other UK nations, this information isn’t even available, as data on dementia diagnosis rates aren’t routinely published.’

It warned limited availability of diagnostic tests and the reluctance of some doctors to even offer people a diagnosis at all, has resulted in a postcode lottery.

Just 53 per cent of people living with dementia in Herefordshire and Worcestershire will be diagnosed, compared to 73 per cent in South Yorkshire, it found.

It comes as a second report predicts there will be a further 1.5 million cases of dementia in the UK by 2050.

Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) said more than 636,000 of these cases would be preventable of people and governments took more action.

The charity said cutting down on alcohol consumption, stopping smoking, doing more exercise and keeping frequent social contact could all lower a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s.

Dementia remains the biggest killer in the UK and is on track to be the nation’s most expensive health condition by 2030.

If nothing changes, one in two people will be directly affected by the disease, either caring for someone with the condition, developing it themselves, or both.

Officials need to take more action to address known risk factors, such as obesity, air pollution and restricted access to early education, it said.

Paola Barbarino, chief executive of ADI, said: ‘This is a critical step, in the absence of treatment or a cure, to prevent as many cases as possible.

‘We must ensure populations are aware of dementia risk-reduction strategies, at all ages, and have access to necessary information, advice, and support services.’

TRANSFER GOSSIP COLUMN: Kylian Mbappe tells PSG he won’t leave the club under any circumstances this summer while Al-Ahli target Liverpool midfielder Thiago Alcantara

By Oli Gamp For Mailonline

Published: 02:15 EDT, 11 August 2023 | Updated: 02:31 EDT, 11 August 2023

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis heaped praise on his ‘friend’ Donald Trump in a new Tuesday interview where he blamed the media and Democrats for rumors that his relationship with the ex-president has gone frosty. 

DeSantis insisted that the reported rivalry between he and Trump was ‘bunk’ claims generated by the media and Democrats, accusing them stoking divisions to weaken the Republican Party ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.

He also underscored his support for the ex-president by urging podcast host Joe Rogan to stand up to criticism over his frequent use of the n-word in episodes of his audio show. DeSantis said people trusted the former Fear Factor host on COVID-19 more than CNN because the media giant was ”spewing disinformation.’

Trump told Rogan to ‘stop apologizing’ on Monday night as the podcast host attempts to stymie the blowback over his use of the slur.

‘Donald Trump’s a friend of mine. He is proud when people do well, and it’s not just me, but obviously he’s a Florida resident, and he appreciates the job that we’ve done,’ DeSantis told Fox News.

‘He’s told me that many times, not only with helping with the election, but just how we govern the state.’

Neither Trump nor DeSantis have confirmed 2024 ambitions. But early GOP polls indicate the Florida governor, who rose to national recognition with Trump’s blessing, is a distant second to the ex-president as the favorite for the Republican nomination.

Multiple reports have indicated Trump is privately seething about DeSantis’ meteoric rise from pro-Trump House lawmaker to a top White House contender, and has bristled about the fact that DeSantis has not ruled out a 2024 challenge. 

DeSantis said Trump ‘wants to see Republicans doing well.’

‘And I think when media is trying to act like he’s upset at me for doing well, I think that’s total bunk. I think they’re just making it up,’ he said. 

Asked about reports that Trump said DeSantis has a ‘dull personality,’ the Florida governor suggested it was a lie generated by Democrats or the media, claiming they were trying to shift political discourse away from President Joe Biden’s crisis-plagued first year in office.

‘So they know that, they know the Democrats are in for a shellacking in 2022. So they’re trying to change the topic, and they’re trying to drive dissension among Republicans,’ DeSantis claimed.

‘And so my message to people is, don’t take that bait. Understand what they’re trying to do. We need to be united and say we don’t like what the Biden administration’s doing.’

He urged his fellow party members to ‘go into ‘22 with a full head of steam with everybody united on the same team.’ 

In another portion of his Fox interview published earlier on Tuesday, DeSantis urged Joe Rogan to not ‘cow to the mob’ amid his racial controversy.

Trump had said on Monday night: ‘Joe Rogan is an interesting and popular guy, but he’s got to stop apologizing to the Fake News and Radical Left maniacs and lunatics.’

‘How many ways can you say you’re sorry? Joe, just go about what you do so well and don’t let them make you look weak and frightened. That’s not you and it never will be!’ Trump wrote in a statement.

On Saturday, Rogan has apologized after musical artist India Arie shared a compilation of Rogan where he could be heard repeatedly using the N-word on his podcast over the years. 

He could then be heard making a joke about the movie ‘Planet of the Apes’ as he recalled a time when he was dropped off in a black neighborhood.

DeSantis insisted that Rogan made a mistake by apologizing, and also defended the podcast host against criticism for inviting guests who share COVID-19 misinformation.

‘No, he shouldn’t have apologized. I mean, you see what happens? The mob will come after people, and they’re targeting Rogan because he’s threatening to upset the apple cart on some of the things that they’re holding dear,’ DeSantis said. 

‘And with COVID, he’s just bringing opposing views. He’s letting people decide. They say he’s against [the COVID vaccine]. I do not listen to his show, but then I read he specifically advocated for people with co-morbidities and elderly to get vaccinated.’

He continued: ‘I think a lot of the legacy outlets and I think the left fear the fact that he can reach so many people, and so they’re out to destroy him. But what I would say is don’t give an inch. Do not apologize. Do not cow to the mob.’ 

DeSantis predicted that mainstream media outlets would be looked on less favorably after the pandemic than Rogan.

‘Well, I think when people are going to look back at this, they’re going to look at outlets like CNN, New York Times as having spewed misinformation they claim to be policing it,’ he said. ‘But if you look from the beginning, who was advocating for lockdowns? CNN and New York Times. Who is advocating for school closures? Those outlets. Who has advocated for force masking of kids? Those outlets.’ 

The video compilation of Rogan emerged when artist India Arie posted it on her Instagram account, using the hashtag #DeleteSpotify.

‘They take this money that´s built from streaming, and they pay this guy $100 million, but they pay us like .003% of a penny,’ the Grammy winner wrote. ‘I don´t want to generate money that pays that.’ 

Rogan went on Instagram to apologize for his use of racial slurs saying that he had said  things ‘that I wish I hadn’t said, or had said differently.’

He said that the slurs were the ‘most regretful and shameful thing’ he has ever had to address and that he hasn´t used the N-word in years. 

Rogan himself said his use of the ‘N word’ over a 12-year period, highlighted in the compilation video, looked ‘horrible, even to me.’

He said he believed at the time that as long as he was using the word in context that people would understand his actions.

‘I never used it to be racist, because I’m not racist,’ he said.

‘There’s nothing I can do to take that back. I wish I could. Obviously, that’s not possible. I certainly wasn’t trying to be racist, and I certainly would never want to offend someone for entertainment with something as stupid as racism,’ Rogan said. 

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek also said in a message to employees on Sunday that Rogan’s racist language was ‘incredibly hurtful’ and that the host was behind the removal of dozens of episodes of his show.

‘While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more,’ Ek said in the note. ‘And I want to make one point very clear – I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer.’

The letter is the clearest indication yet of where Spotify stands on Rogan´s fate with the company as some musicians, including Neil Young and India.Arie, have pulled their work from the streaming service in protest and others could follow.  

Rogan’s podcast is a key part of the company´s strategy to be a one-stop shop for audio.

‘We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope. Looking at the issue more broadly, it´s critical thinking and open debate that powers real and necessary progress,’ Ek wrote.

In his letter, Ek announced an investment of $100 million to license, develop and market ‘music and audio content from historically marginalized groups,’ without giving more details. 

Rogan had been facing backlash for COVID-19 misinformation in his program hosted on Spotify, after singer-songwriters including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled their content from the streaming platform.

The incidents prompted Spotify to add a ‘content advisory’ to any episode featuring discussion of COVID-19 as scientists and medical professionals urged the platform to prevent Rogan from spreading falsehoods.

Spotify said it would soon add a warning to all podcasts that discuss COVID-19, directing listeners to factual, up-to-date information from scientists and public health experts. 

Rogan’s show, The Joe Rogan Experience, has become one of the most popular podcasts on Spotify after the streaming platform started featuring it in 2020. 

Spotify’s exclusive licensing deal for the show was worth more than $100 million.   

More than 70 episodes of Rogan’s podcast were removed from the platform over the weekend after he issued his first apology on Saturday.

On Monday, the CEO of Rumble, a YouTube-style website popular among U.S. conservatives, offered Rogan $100 million over four years to move his show over to  their platform.

Launched in 2013, Canada-based Rumble has also entered an agreement to deliver video and streaming for Truth Social, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed social media app. 

Spotify reports having 406 million active monthly users, up nearly 20% from last year, and advertising has grown largely because of podcasts. 

Musicians still generate the bulk of Spotify´s profits, experts say.

The company had 31% of the 524 million music streaming subscriptions worldwide in the second quarter of 2021, more than double that of second-place Apple Music, according to Midia Research.