A week after filing a lawsuit against President Donald Trump for copyright infringement, Neil Young is addressing a potential problem.
On Tuesday, an email (which was obtained by SPIN) was sent to Neil Young Archives members detailing Young’s decision to disengage Google and Facebook from his website.
“Facebook knowingly allows untruths and lies in its political ads to circulate on the platform, while bots sow discord among users,” the statement reads in part. “Sowing dissent and chaos in our country via political disinformation is something we cannot condone. Simply put, Facebook is screwing with our election.”
Young’s gripes with Facebook go back years, and he’s been outspoken about the social network. The statement notes that it will cost “almost $20,000 to disengage” with the tech giants.
However, the note doesn’t detail his specific concerns with Google. SPIN has reached out to Young’s rep for clarification on his stance on Google and what the $20,000 cost entails.
It’s been an eventful year for Young. In February, he announced plans to tour older arenas this year before COVID-19 forced him to cancel. He expressed his support of Black Lives Matter and released a reworked version of “Southern Man” in solidarity with the movement. In June, he issued Homegrown, a lost album from 1974. And he’s been in an ongoing battle with Trump even before he decided to sue him. he recently released a new version of “Looking for a Leader” hitting back at Trump as well.
Read the email in full below.
Hello NYA Member—
We’re reaching out because Neil Young Archives is about to begin the process of eliminating Facebook and Google logins from our website. (If you want to read about why, we have included Neil’s article from the NYATC at the bottom of this email.)If you use Facebook or Google for login, we are going to ask you to run through a quick process the next time you log in—it’s just a few extra clicks. At the end of the process, your account will be transitioned to use your email address and a password for login. Goodbye Facebook and Google buttons.
We thank you immensely for bearing with us through this process. We know it’s not convenient, but we believe we will be better for it. “Quality whether you want it or not!”
If you have any questions, please reach out to customer support through our contact page. Thanks for being a part of NYA!
—The Archives TeamNYA DAYS AWAY FROM DROPPING SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM
We have been working on this project for a couple of months. Trying to disengage from the corrupt social platform is a costly and time-consuming process for NYA. Our cost will be almost $20,000 to disengage, while treating our subscribers with respect, making it as easy as possible for them to continue with us after Facebook.
Facebook knowingly allows untruths and lies in its political ads to circulate on the platform, while bots sow discord among users. Sowing dissent and chaos in our country via political disinformation is something we can not condone. Simply put, Facebook is screwing with our election.
The money we are spending to get out of this mess is designed to make it as easy as possible for our valued Facebook users to log in simply and securely to NYA without the social media platform involved in any way. It is in keeping with what we have been maintaining re: the irresponsible social media platform for the past two years.
NYA strives to be a place where music lovers can get all of my music at its highest quality, while keeping up on news and views from around the world that we wish to share. We are primarily a music platform featuring all the background information, films, videos, and credits associated with each piece of music we present while offering unparalleled listening quality.
thanks for your support,
NYA
