House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is accusing YouTube of potentially repressing former President Trump’s interview with podcast host Joe Rogan.
In a letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pitchai sent late Wednesday, Jordan said the tech giant’s subsidiary “appears to have censored the video of Joe Rogan’s recent interview with President Donald Trump.”
“We write to seek an immediate briefing on (1) YouTube’s decision to censor Joe Rogan’s interview with President Trump; and (2) Google Search’s elevation of material critical of the interview,” Jordan wrote.
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The Ohio Republican cited a New York Post report that said people were having difficulty finding the three-hour interview on YouTube.
“Recent news coverage reports that ‘search[es] on YouTube using the terms ‘Joe Rogan Trump’ or ‘Joe Rogan Donald Trump’ did not bring up Friday’s three-hour sit-down at the top of the list,’” the letter said
The report claimed the full interview was also “absent” from YouTube’s trending videos page the following day.
Jordan also said YouTube acknowledged “censorship” of the interview, referring to a statement posted to X earlier this week that read, “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,” the statement said.
Jordan wrote in his letter to Alphabet, “Americans deserve access to political speech, especially in the closing weeks before an election.”
“Given the company’s recent history of censorship, including at the behest of the Biden-Harris Administration, YouTube’s censorship of former President Trump is particularly troubling,” he wrote.
“Please arrange for this briefing as soon as possible, but no later than 10:00 am on November 14, 2024.”
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Republicans have accused Google of censoring speech in the past. Most recently, the attorney general of Missouri said he would investigate the company, though Google called the accusations “totally false” in a statement to Reuters.
As of late Wednesday evening, Rogan’s interview with Trump has over 41 million views on YouTube.
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