Fans react after Mark Zuckerberg tells Joe Rogan that Joe Biden's administration pressured Meta to censor anti-COVID-19 vaccine content: "Unreal"

Joe Rogan recently had Meta and Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on his massively popular podcast, the Joe Rogan Experience. Zuckerberg, the head honcho of one of the most used social media platforms in the world, has been both lauded and scrutinized for his work.

Over the course of its 20-year run, Facebook has faced a myriad of controversial accusations, from political leanings and media manipulation to extreme censorship.

One of the more notable subjects Joe Rogan and Mark Zuckerberg talked about was the controversial debate on vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rogan himself took major heat during the global crisis when he made some comments on vaccines, which were taken by some members of the media as "anti-vax" sentiments. Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook has become a hotbed of fake news about vaccines and more during said time period.

In the podcast episode, 'Zuck' stated that the US government had a huge hand in forcing Facebook to censor and push out anti-vaccine content during the pandemic, saying:

​

"In the beginning, it was like, 'Okay, there aren't enough masks, masks aren't that important', to then it's like, 'Oh no, you have to wear a mask'. Everything was shifting around. It just began [to be] very difficult to kind of follow. And this really hit the most extreme, I'd say, during the [Joe] Biden administration when they were trying to roll out the vaccine program."

He continued:

​

"And, I'm generally like, pretty pro rolling out vaccine. I think on balance, the vaccines are mostly positive than negative. But I think that while they're trying to push that program, they also tried to censor anyone who is basically arguing against it and they pushed us super hard to take down things that were honestly, were true."

Listen to Zuckerberg tell Joe Rogan about it here (0:22):

Fans are reacting strongly to this news, with @SteveUrkelDude saying:

​

"Unreal..."

Meanwhile, @rand_longevity said:

​

"Zuck is officially on the right side of history. Biden will have to answer for this"

Here are more comments:

Comments on the video. [Image credit: @unusual_whales on X]

---

When Joe Rogan clarified his stance on COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic

Back in 2021, Joe Rogan received major backlash from major media outlets like CNN and the internet court of law. This was due to his contentious comments on whether or not healthy young people should get vaccinated.

He also drew a lot of flak for undergoing a medically supervised procedure as treatment for contracting COVD-19. The procedure involved the use of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug which prompted major media outlets and political figures to accuse the podcaster of using "horse dewormer" medication.

Joe Rogan was later defended by medical figurehead Sanjay Gupta and later Dave Smith for his use of ivermectin. As for his vaccination comments, the MMA icon clarified his stance himself:

​

"The thing about this whole thing about people getting upset with me: I'm not an anti-vax person. In fact, I said, I believe they're safe and I encourage many people to take them. My parents were vaccinated. I just said, I don't think that if you're a young, healthy person, that you need it. Their argument was, you need it for other people [so you don't transmit the virus]."

Listen to him here (1:08):

​