Hasan Piker Hit With Twitch Ban Over ‘Improper Handling of Terrorist Propaganda’ Related to Israeli Embassy Shooting Comments
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Progressive streamer Hasan Piker announced over the weekend he was temporarily banned from Twitch for what the Amazon-owned platform called the “Improper Handling of Terrorist Propaganda.”
In recent months, many in the media have heralded Piker as the left’s answer to Joe Rogan. Piker has been the subject of glowing profiles in outlets like the New York Times and CNN, which often ignore some of his more controversial past commentary. Last fall, Piker grabbed headlines for saying he doesn’t “have an issue” with Hezbollah and for hyping Houthi terrorist propaganda – praising the group for seizing ships in international waters.
On Saturday night, Piker shared Twitch’s email to him announcing the ban. Piker posted a screenshot of the message and captioned it:
i covered the motives of the israeli embassy staff shooter. twitch tos dictates a suspension for even critical examination of the manifesto. i believe this is a bad policy for news and press freedom.
ill take the suspension, but hope twitch changes this policy in the future.
“Based on a review of your activity or content, we have issued a global suspension on your account,” the Twitch email added. “As a result, your access to Twitch services is temporarily restricted. Please be aware that repeated violations may lead to more serious actions on your account, including longer temporary suspensions or permanent suspension.”
Piker has over 3 million Twitch followers and 1.6 million YouTube subscribers under the handle HasanAbi. Piker’s highly lucrative streaming career began with him playing video games live, but has since morphed into political commentary. He is also the nephew of left-wing commentator Cenk Uygur and was a former host on his Young Turks network.
Twitch apparently banned Piker over his May 23rd video titled, “What People Miss About The DC Israeli Embassy Shooting,” in which he read through the manifesto of the alleged DC shooter, who targeted and murdered two Israeli Embassy staff members in DC.
Piker’s commentary sparked anger online as he discussed whether or not the shooting was a “false flag” and at one point said the shooter “was genuine in his actions.”
“I’m not ‘Mr. False Flag’ at all, but like every single thing that he did in the aftermath of the shooting is so fucking crazy that it’s like, you could not have fucking designed a, a incident like this. You could not have designed a better false flag incident like this. I’m not saying it is a false flag incident at all. I am not saying that. I think this is just one dude who is genuine in his actions and maybe, you know, a little, a little bit brain broken,” Piker said during the live stream.
Piker replied to an X user who accused him of anti-Semitism in reaction to his original post. “You called it a false flag. You hate the Jewish people and you’re antisemitic. If this was an attack on two Islamic humans, you wouldn’t be attacking anyone calling it a false flag. You are a terrible person and I hope your life gets turned upside down,” wrote the user, to which Piker replied, “lmao i didn’t. ironically enough i was showing his motive to dispel the rumors of a false flag, which is the reason for this suspension but i don’t think you’re capable of critical thought.”
Twitch appeared to have lifted Piker’s ban by Monday morning.
