Joe Rogan, Russell Brand Blast Critics Labeling Rumble ‘Far-Right,’ Call Out YouTube ‘Self-Censorship’

Joe Rogan and Russell Brand sat down for a wide-ranging podcast this week and at one point praised the video streaming service Rumble over YouTube.

Rogan and Brand discussed the Covid-19 pandemic and censorship stemming from it at length, at one point discussing YouTube’s demonetization and censorship rules. Brand announced his show was moving to Rumble in September after an episode discussing Covid and the media was censored by YouTube.

“They do things to get people to self-censor and Rumble doesn’t do that,” Rogan said.

Rumble has acted as an alternative to YouTube for a number of conservatives, including Donald Trump Jr. The platform promotes itself as a free speech haven compared to YouTube and is a central platform for popular conspiracy theorists like Steve Bannon.

Brand said he would specifically look at the titles of Rogan’s YouTube clips to try and keep his from being demonetized, but it would still happen, calling their guidelines “wild algebra.”

“They’re running a business. I understand it from their perspective. They’re running a business, they have advertisers, I understand it from their perspective. But from a content creation perspective, you just couldn’t trust them,” Rogan said.

“This is what Rumble fundamentally offered,” Brand said. “They gave me a good deal and the assurance that we’re not going to censor you. Now obviously coming from where I come from politically and in terms of my background even as a person that’s been in the public for a while, I know how Rumble is being portrayed. It’s being portrayed as a right-wing, far-right place [for] conspiracy theorists —”

“Yeah, you and Glenn Greenwald, super far right,” a laughing Rogan cut in.

“Right, married, gay,” Brand said.

“Tulsi Gabbard, super right wing,” Rogan joked.

The podcaster and comedian theorized anything “alternative to the censorship model” today will be portrayed as “right-wing.”

Watch above via Spotify’s The Joe Rogan Experience podcast.