‘Choose words carefully’: Why was HasanAbi banned from Twitch?
Twitch’s policies can often arbitrarily target streamers. But this time around, the platform hit political streamer Hasan Piker (HasanAbi) with a ban. Currently, his channel can’t be accessed on Twitch.
Right-wing accounts accused Piker of inciting violence against United States Senator Rick Scott. One of their tweets read, “Hasan Piker just called for violence against a sitting US senator.” They proceeded to clip Piker’s video, in which he said, “If you care about Medicare fraud, you would k*ll Rick Scott.” The X account tagged the FBI to raise concern over Piker’s comment.
Piker defended himself from the allegation through a YouTube video. “Cancel culture has finally come for me,” he sarcastically remarked. In the full clip, the streamer was reacting to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s claim that $50 million is lost every year through alleged fraud in Medicaid alone.
“That fraud is not coming from individuals. It’s coming from providers. They’re not tackling providers. They’re not actually tackling false billing. They are trying to cut recipients,” Piker said in the clip. He added, “The reason why I’m saying ‘if you cared about Medicare or Medicaid fraud, you would k*ll Rick Scott’ is because—and not make him a prominent part of the Republican Party—is because he, to this day, is still known as committing the largest Medicare fraud in US history.” Essentially, Piker was being hyperbolic about his speech.
Additionally, the uncut clip explains that Piker was referring to nipping Senator Scott’s political career. It had nothing to do with calling for the assassination of an elected official. After briefly explaining himself, Piker then talked about Rick Scott’s historical Medicaid fraud case.
Allegations of political targeting
Piker amassed more than 2.81 million followers on Twitch and is known for his progressive political commentary. He interviewed several Democratic representatives, including Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, in his streams. In the wake of the California wildfires, Piker shed light on the stories of incarcerated men who work as firemen. But controversially, Piker video–called a Houthi pirate on stream for a brief Q&A. Needless to say, Piker is a divisive figure. Nevertheless, many on social media think that he has been targeted because he’s an influential left-leaning commentator.
One X user wrote, “No one actually thinks you were making a threat, they are just clutching pearls because they want to censor everyone who isn’t on the far right.” Similarly, other X users defended that Piker’s words were deliberately misconstrued.
Meanwhile, Piker’s opposition argued that he was merely avoiding accountability.
On YouTube and X, Piker promised that he will “choose words carefully next time.” He then hammered down on Speaker Mike Johnson’s lack of concern over Senator Rick Scott’s history of fraud. Instead of using the word “kill,” Piker said he should’ve used the term “max punishment” on Scott instead.
It goes without saying that inciting harm against an elected official should be taken seriously. Case in point, January 6 rioters who were happily chanting “hang Mike Pence” should’ve been held accountable. But in line with free speech and truth, words shouldn’t be twisted to implicate political opponents.
Update: Twitch lifted the ban on Hasan Piker’s channel as of March 5, 2025.
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