YouTube weighed in after right-wing internet users accused the platform on Monday of “censoring” podcaster Joe Rogan’s interview with former President Donald Trump.
The allegations came primarily from users on X, who suggested that YouTube was purposely omitting the interview from its search results.
“Tried to find the Rogan/Trump interview on YouTube but no matter what I search, it’s not coming up,” one user said. “Would be beyond bonkers if they’re actively trying to suppress it. Must be a glitch, right?”
The accusation quickly went viral, with countless users also reporting they were unable to find the interview through YouTube’s search function.
“YouTube is censoring the Joe Rogan interview with Trump by not showing the video (with over 33m views) when you search for it, and people have noticed. WTF,” another said.
The claim soon made its way to X owner Elon Musk, who accused the Google-owned video hosting platform of “massive far left censorship.”
Since being posted to YouTube on Saturday, Rogan’s interview with Trump has racked up an astonishing 37 million views. The video is already the third-most-viewed ever on Rogan’s channel and will likely take the second-place spot in the coming days.
The Daily Dot reproduced the search queries used by many online. Results displayed newer videos covering the interview as opposed to the original interview itself. The top results also included shorter clips hosted by Rogan from the interview, although not the entire video. But other search queries, such as “Joe Rogan experience,” produced the interview as the top result.
Rogan actually debunked the conspiracy before it exploded, confirming that the censorship claims were unfounded and that his team had delisted the interview after an upload glitch with Spotify, the primary platform where his podcast is hosted.
“There is no issue with YouTube censoring the trump episode,” Rogan said on Friday night. “It was just supposed to go live on both Spotify and YouTube at the same time and there was a glitch in Spotify’s upload system and so we delisted the YouTube link until it’s fixed. It should be fine now.”
When questioned on the matter, a spokesperson for YouTube sent the Daily Dot its post on X outlining the issue.
“WRT Joe Rogan/Pres.Trump interview and YT search results: Since airing Friday, the interview has generated over 34 million views on YouTube and counting, making it Joe Rogan’s most viewed episode of the year,” YouTube wrote. “For some searches on Monday the original 3-hour interview didn’t appear prominently. Short excerpts uploaded by the Joe Rogan channel appeared, but we know it was frustrating for users looking to find the full video. We’ve worked to resolve this and viewers will begin seeing the full podcast in more YouTube search results soon.”
It’s unclear if Rogan’s decision to initially delist the video contributed to the interview’s lower visibility in search results. Yet despite YouTube and Rogan’s remarks, the narrative that the interview is being censored already cemented itself among conservatives.
Musk is already capitalizing on the claim by pinning a version of the interview on X to the top of his profile.
“Full episode of @JoeRogan & @realDonaldTrump available on 𝕏! YouTube experienced some uh … technical difficulties,” Musk said.
Rogan also shared the post on X.
The unfounded claims from conservatives are nearly identical to those made back in April when Rogan interviewed ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
At the time, right-wing internet users were adamant that YouTube was censoring the episode. Once again, Rogan addressed the controversy by noting that his team caused the issue, not YouTube.
“FYI because there’s so many conspiracy theories about the Tucker podcast on YouTube; it was accidentally released at 12am instead of 12pm,” Rogan said at the time. “Jamie made it temporarily private until the normally scheduled release time 12 hours later.”
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