Since premiering on July 21, 2020, a hateful and obscenity-packed podcast, “Scientology: Fair Game,” has created and aired more than 70 audio episodes of discrimination, generating advertising and subscription income for the two-faced internet platform and the vindictive “stars” of the program.
The podcast is hosted by expelled former Scientologist Mike Rinder, who was removed from his position in the Church for criminal misconduct and turned virulent enemy, and former TV sitcom actress and ex-Scientologist Leah Remini.
After her show, The King of Queens, ended in 2007, Remini’s show business career sputtered seriously, but six years later, she created a new starring role for herself as a bitter enemy of her former religion—a role she has used to line her pockets and try to keep herself in the public eye.
The pair’s scurrilous podcast found a home on Spotify, which lately has come under serious fire after its star podcaster since September 2020, Joe Rogan, was publicly accused of providing false and potentially dangerous information about COVID-19. Legendary musicians, including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, removed their music from Spotify’s streaming service in protest. Spotify was also prompted to take down dozens of episodes of Rogan’s podcast following revelations of his repeated use of racial slurs.
Spotify, originally a music streaming service but in recent years expanding its podcast business, is struggling with the blowback, which has brought to a head the wider public dissent over media platforms’ enabling of, and lack of responsibility for, violative content.
In the case of the anti-Scientology podcast, Spotify is enabling Remini and Rinder to circulate toxic lies and demeaning, antireligious propaganda to internet users. The podcast presents an unending, nasty diatribe against Scientologists, frequently with obscene and filthy language and provocative hate speech denigrating and defaming a segment of the population—ironically, many of them Spotify users—for their religion.
Spotify is enabling Remini and Rinder to circulate toxic lies…an unending, nasty diatribe against Scientologists, frequently with obscene and filthy language and provocative hate speech.
The platform, for example, took no issue with Mike Rinder maliciously declaring that all Scientologists are “brainwashed,” “fundamentalist” terrorists, insanely claiming “they are the people that will fly a plane into the World Trade Center, or blow up a bus in Tel Aviv or whatever with a bomb strapped to them.”
Remini, frequently in unhinged fashion, voices patent hate content, declaring the religion of Scientologists throughout the world as “pure fucking evil,” “poison,” “fraud,” “criminal,” “terrorist,” and “a dangerous vile cult.” She brands Scientologists “lunatics,” “robot[s],” “extremists,” “manipulators,” “liars,” “pussies,” “abusive, horrible, hateful,” “pure evil” and “a bunch of fucking like body snatchers,” who are “not mentally sound,” “have no education,” “have zero compassion,” are “utterly brainwashed,” do “not enjoy their lives,” “can’t afford to feed their families,” “can’t think for themselves,” and believe that people on “the other side…literally should die.”
The podcast also serves guest propagandists and bigots who provide an echo chamber for Remini and Rinder. One, a disgraced, former reporter fired from the BBC after he was caught on camera making racist and homophobic slurs, was allowed to liken all Scientologists to subjects of “mind control” such as in North Korea and Islamic states. Another, a former Scientologist expelled from the Church, was permitted to utter the type of hate speech known to incite violent reaction, amplifying Remini’s outrageous claim that Scientologists believe others “should die” with the deranged pronouncement, “we wanted them all dead.”
Spotify states, “We do not tolerate hate content on Spotify,” defining hate content as “content that expressly and principally promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability.”
Spotify did not respond to multiple attempts from Freedom to obtain clarification of why they are not holding content providers to their published policy, and why they condone the blatant bigotry and hate speech on the Remini-Rinder podcast.
Freedom further found that Spotify’s subsidiary Megaphone, a podcast technology company focusing on ad-insertion and hosting, provides users with a pathway to find the podcast in violation of its stated policy. On its website, Megaphone claims it “has the right to remove podcasts which:
“Makes derogatory or inflammatory statements about individuals or groups of people that carries no meaning other than the expression of hatred toward a particular group, especially in circumstances in which the communication is likely to provoke violence.
“Are incitements to hatred primarily against a group of persons defined in terms of race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
“Are intended to hurt someone’s reputation.”
Spotify has yet to answer for the disparity between the Remini podcast and the company’s existing hate content policy as well as its recently issued “Platform Rules.”
Meanwhile growing public dissent proves that users are recognizing the blatant hypocrisy of a business model that can claim no responsibility for violative content.
Spotify did not respond to multiple attempts from Freedom to obtain clarification of why they are not holding content providers to their published policy, and why they condone the blatant bigotry and hate speech on the Remini-Rinder podcast.
