On March 28, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claimed that podcaster Joe Rogan suggested he could use Infowars’ “network infrastructure” if Spotify kicked Rogan off of its platform. Jones stated, “Joe Rogan's been here many times. He’s like, man, if they ever kick me off Spotify I could just use all this.”

Jones and Rogan appear to have a cozy relationship. Both live in Austin, Texas, and Jones said they recently went out to dinner together on March 26. Rogan has repeatedly defended Jones’ extreme rhetoric and discussed their friendship, including claiming to have known Jones “for 24 years” and asserting, “I wish that that Sandy Hook thing had never happened. Because if it wasn’t for that, the guy’s a different cultural figure.” Jones has been sued over his false claim that the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting -- which killed 20 elementary school children and six educators -- was a hoax. 

The Alex Jones Show has been banned from Spotify, Facebook, Apple, and YouTube since 2018, with Spotify pointing to “repeated violations” of its “prohibited content policies.” Although the show briefly appeared on Spotify in February, the streaming platform removed it after Media Matters reported on its presence.

Rogan has recently faced widespread backlash for spreading medical misinformation, bigotry, and right-wing lies on his Spotify podcast. Yet Spotify has determined that its recently published platform rules, which the company claims have been in place internally “for years,” do not prohibit the numerous dangerous and unfounded claims spread on The Joe Rogan Experience.