Prominent figures in the tech industry, including Marc Andreessen and Palmer Luckey, have leveled accusations of deliberate censorship against Alphabet Inc.’s Google-owned YouTube.
What Happened: Last week, a social media handle in a post on X, formerly Twitter, accused YouTube of suppressing a full episode featuring Joe Rogan and Donald Trump.
He shared a clip of Rogan saying that despite YouTube rectifying the issue after being contacted, the incident sparked a backlash from Elon Musk, resulting in the episode being hosted on Spotify.
In the clip, Rogan could be heard saying that the situation reflects a level of desperation, as YouTube was unprepared for the popularity of the content. He described it as a “runaway train” that YouTube’s parent company dislikes, attributing this to its ideological opposition to Donald Trump’s increasing popularity.
Marc Andreessen, general partner of Andreessen Horowitz, supported the post, stating, “These are not accidents, they are deliberate.” He further alleged that such censorship has been ongoing for eight years and could have been addressed at any point during that time.
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Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus and Anduril Industries, also joined the debate, sharing his own experience of YouTube’s alleged bias.
He said that Anduril’s YouTube account was banned for years, supposedly for violating the platform’s policy on promoting harm. Luckey managed to get the account unbanned a few years ago, but he attributed the initial ban to “TDS-driven” motives.
YouTube did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comments.
Why It Matters: Last week, Rogan refuted rumors of YouTube censoring an episode featuring Trump, attributing the temporary disappearance of the YouTube link to a glitch in Spotify's upload system.
"There is no issue with YouTube censoring the Trump episode… It should be fine now," Rogan said at the time.
Previously in September, Trump suggested that Google could face legal consequences, alleging that the tech giant is interfering with the upcoming election by manipulating search results.
“It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about Comrade Kamala Harris,” he stated in a post on Truth Social.
In 2023, YouTube reinstated Trump’s account after suspending it in 2021 due to concerns that his posts could incite violence.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photos courtesy: Joe Rogan Experience and Wikimedia
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