Election Interference: Google Buries Joe Rogan’s Trump Interview on YouTube Search

Donald Trump and Joe Rogan
AP Photo

Joe Rogan’s three-hour interview with former President Donald Trump on Friday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience was buried in the search results on Google’s YouTube on Monday, after having surpassed 34 million views within less than 72 hours of being posted.

On Monday night, Breitbart News searched “Rogan Trump” in the YouTube search bar, which returned results for videos about the podcast episode and other similar political videos — but not the actual interview itself. Similar searches, including the full names of both Rogan and the former president had similar results.

In our test, Breitbart News scrolled down the YouTube page to review more than 50 videos and did not successfully find Rogan’s interview with Trump on Friday’s episode of The Joe Rogan Experience.

YouTube announced in a Monday evening X post that the video-streaming platform was aware that Rogan’s original interview with Trump “didn’t appear prominently,” adding that the company was working to “resolve” the issue.

“[With respect to] Joe Rogan/Pres. Trump interview and [YouTube] 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 said.

“For some searches on Monday the original 3-hour interview didn’t appear prominently,” the video platform continued. “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,” YouTube added.

Social media users aired their frustration with Google’s video-streaming platform in the comment section of Rogan’s YouTube video featuring his three-hour interview with Trump.

“Dear YouTube… STOP HIDING THIS,” one YouTube user demanded.

“Shame on YouTube for hiding this from the search results,” another echoed.

“STOP HIDING THIS INTERVIEW!” a third exclaimed.

“YOUTUBE IS TRYING TO HIDE THIS PODCAST,” another proclaimed.

“33.7 million views, and you can’t search this. The machine is getting worried!” another declared.

“The fact that YouTube has a video with 33mil views in 2 days and doesn’t show it on the first page when I search for it — [YouTube] coping badly,” another stated.

“Damn, YouTube didn’t want me to find this,” another surmised.

“I typed in YouTube Search “Joe Rogan Trump” and this video never popped up,” another explained, before accusing YouTube  of “throttling.”

“This was extremely more difficult to find than it should have been,” another echoed.

“Why is YouTube hiding this from trending when it is the #1 most watched video?” another inquired.

Another simply stated, “Shame on Google for censorship,” while another wrote, “Looks like YouTube doesn’t want us to see this anymore.”

“How is this not #1 trending?” another asked, adding, “33 million in 2 days is crazy!”

“Imagine how many more views there would be if YouTube actually listed the video,” another commented.

“YouTube still hiding this from the search results. I had to go to Joe Rogan’s page and click ‘videos’ just to find it,” another YouTube user wrote just before 9:00 p.m. EST on Monday.

As of 9:20 p.m. EST on Monday, searching “Rogan Trump” still does not return results for Rogan’s original interview with Trump within the first 50 videos that appear on the platform, but searching “Joe Rogan Trump” does — according to a search test by Breitbart News.

At the time of publishing, Rogan’s original YouTube video has garnered more than 35.8 million views.

Joe Rogan responded to Google’s search chicanery by posting the entire episode on Elon Musk’s X platform.

Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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