Joe Rogan has weighed in on the UK government’s handling of ongoing riots, expressing his concerns about the implications for free speech.
In a recent episode of his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan targeted what he called “terrible government overreach” and made a bogus claim that 4,000 people in England have been jailed for “thought crimes.”
In the UK, nearly 500 people have been detained during far-right demonstrations that started when three young girls were killed in Southport after several social media posts propagated false information about the suspect’s immigration status as a Muslim.
The US commentator further compared the UK with “Soviet Russia” in a video clip, which has been shared by Tesla CEO Elon Musk shared on his social media platform X.
“You’re seeing it in England now, with terrible government overreach. People talk about soviet Russia, like how bad Russia is in terms of cracking down on thought police and cracking down on bad tweets and things like that,” he stated.
Musk, who was denounced as “deeply irresponsible” after launching a flurry of assaults on the UK government’s attempts to address violent disorder in the UK, reposted the video of Rogan making baseless statements about British policing.
The X owner reposted a picture of a fake headline — ‘Keir Starmer considering building ‘emergency detainment camps’ on the Falkland Islands’ – in response to the UK’s response to riots. Musk deleted his post after it was seen by a million of users in just 15 minutes.
Joe Rogan questions subjectivity of hate speech
In England, Rogan alleged thought crimes have resulted in the arrest of almost 4,000 people for their remarks on social media that were deemed offensive or troubling. “And I think it’s only 200 in Russia.”
He went on to say that it is absolutely insane that the UK government feels free to find people who have said things that they disapprove of and put them in a cage in England.
In addition, Rogan questioned the subjectivity of hate speech legislation and issued a warning, saying, “‘Yeah, well, people shouldn’t tweet hateful things,’ who’s to decide what is a hateful thing? That’s the problem.”
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UK government reacts to Joe Rogan’s false claim
Speaking to The Independent, Labour MP Dawn Butler said that Rogan’s “blatant misinformation” might give the extreme right more confidence and asserted that there is a “clear difference” between hate and free speech.
Stressing that it’s concerning that people with such massive followings would spread “false and ridiculous claims”, the lawmaker said that this “blatant misinformation is worrying”.
“It shows the danger of how easily fake news spreads across social media and I fear it will only embolden the far right, resulting in more hatred and abuse,” he added.
