During a recent episode of the Joe Rogan Experience with guest Brendan Schaub, host Joe Rogan shared his thoughts on TikTok, particularly the differences between the platform’s American and Chinese versions and how he believes social media is shaping public perception.
The discussion began after Rogan and Schaub talked about a survey claiming that roughly one in four Americans believe the assassination attempts on Donald Trump were staged. Rogan argued that platforms like TikTok are fueling that kind of thinking.
“This is TikTok. It’s ruined. That’s the problem. Rotten their brains out from inside their heads,” Rogan said.
Schaub agreed that it was a serious issue, which led Rogan to compare the American version of TikTok with the version available in China.
“Meanwhile, you go on Chinese TikTok, it’s all like traditional dance and martial arts, science projects,” Rogan said. “Yeah. It shuts down for kids after 10 p.m. They’re doing such a great job.”
Rogan then brought up TikTok’s reported sale to an American company and said he did not expect the platform’s direction to change under new ownership.
“And then they sold it, right?” Rogan said. “So they sold it to that American company and they’re just going to continue doing what the Chinese did and make the most amount of money, which is rotting people’s brains out.”
Schaub responded by asking whether things could improve if the new ownership decided to promote more positive or educational content instead. Rogan, however, remained skeptical.
“It wouldn’t get more,” Rogan said. “It would, everyone would go right over to Instagram, which is like Instagram’s all assassinated.”
When Schaub pushed further and asked what would happen if all major social media platforms adopted a healthier approach at the same time, Rogan argued that it still would not work because users are already conditioned to seek out extr eme content.
“You would have to have no one cross that picket line and they all would because people are ad*icted to watching f**ked up street fig hts and crazy things now,” Rogan said. “Like my algorithm is all like people figh ting in parking lots and there’s so much of that.”
