YouTube takes down antivaxx Joe Rogan interview which likened vaccines to mass psychosis
YouTube has removed a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience in which the podcast host was talking to Dr Robert Malone – a physician with a history of controversial statements related to Covid-19.
The episode in question, No 1757, was uploaded to Spotify on New Year's Eve, as Mr Rogan has an exclusive deal with the streaming service. While Mr Rogan no longer uploads full shows to YouTube, several third-party channels have taken it upon themselves to post the episodes that would otherwise only be available on Spotify.
While a number of recent JRE episodes remain on YouTube, one featuring Dr Malone was removed by the platform after only a few hours, The Post Millenial reports.
Given the doctor’s contested views on Covid-19, including his opposition to vaccine mandates for minors, the act by YouTube has sparked several accusations of censorship amongst right-wing politicians and political commentators.
The now-viral conversation between Mr Rogan and Dr Malone saw the latter drawing parallels between current American society and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s, when the Nazis came into power, saying American society is developing a “mass formation psychosis”.
“It was from, basically, European intellectual inquiry into what the heck happened in Germany in the ‘20s and ‘30s. Very intelligent, highly educated population, and they went barking mad. And how did that happen? The answer is mass formation psychosis.
“When you have a society that has become decoupled from each other, and has free-floating anxiety, in a sense that things don’t make sense. We can’t understand it. And then their attention gets focused by a leader or series of events on one small point, just like hypnosis. They literally become hypnotized and can be led anywhere,” said Mr Malone.
A link to the now-removed YouTube video shows that it was removed for “violating” the platforms Community Guidlines, which suggests that misinformation was their rationale for doing so.
The Independent attempted to reach out to YouTube for comment, but thus far the tech giant has not responded.
