Elon Musk reacts to Joe Rogan's Russia-England comparison over tweet-based arrests

Joe Rogan recently drew Elon Musk's attention on X/Twitter after a clip of him offering his take on the recent wave of tweet-based arrests in England. In short, the U.K. government is spearheading a crackdown on social media posts deemed to be potential causers of racial hatred.

Naturally, Rogan, who has often fancied himself a proponent of free speech, expressed alarm over the recent arrests made over the propagation of controversial tweets. A clip of him talking about it on his podcast is currently making the rounds on X/Twitter.

Musk, who is another public figure who champions free speech, was quick to retweet the clip of Rogan, wherein the UFC color commentator compared the U.K. government's conduct to that of the Soviet Union.

"You're seeing it now in England, with people getting arrested for tweets. England, you know, 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. I think there's something like 4,000 people have been arrested in England for thought crimes, where they've said things online that people find to be a hateful thing or a problematic thing. And I think it's only 200 in Russia."

Check out Joe Rogan's thoughts on the U.K.'s tweet-based arrests:

Given that Rogan is known for hosting guests of countless different backgrounds and opinions on his podcast, it stands to reason that he takes issue with how England is choosing to tackle online hate speech.

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Joe Rogan previously endorsed Elon Musk's plan to purchase X in the name of free speech

Joe Rogan and Elon Musk have a well-known friendship, and it is one that saw the comedian support the SpaceX CEO's decision to purchase X/Twitter when it was still owned by Twitter, Inc. Rogan did so due to his belief that Musk wouldn't implement policies that would censor anyone on the platform.

"He's an insane person who's dedicated to free speech, who just happens to have $200 billion. So, he can step in and do it [buy X/Twitter]."

Check out Joe Rogan talk about Elon Musk buying X/Twitter (1:39):

In the aftermath of Musk's purchase of the social media app, which saw him rebrand it as 'X,' there has been far less moderation of language and content compared to before, which is what Rogan had hoped would happen.