If you’ve paid attention to the midterm congressional campaigns this election cycle, you’ve probably heard a lot of talk about Hasan Piker: Republicans highlighting his most controversial statements, moderate Democrats criticizing him, progressives hoping to draw support from his base, journalists asking candidates about him, and pundits debating what role he’ll have on the outcome of the midterms. If you haven’t paid as much attention to politics, you’re probably asking a different question: Who the hell is Hasan Piker?
Hasan Piker is a Twitch streamer. Piker, the son of Turkish immigrants, graduated from Rutgers in 2013 with a double major in political science and communication studies. He began his career interning for his uncle at The Young Turks (TYT), a left-leaning political talk show. In 2018, he left TYT to pursue his own social media career, including his Twitch channel, HasanAbi. Since then, Piker has become one of the most controversial figures in American politics. In April, two members of the House of Representatives introduced a resolution to condemn Piker’s rhetoric.
This level of outrage over an influencer is unusual. Piker has 3.1 million subscribers on Twitch and 1.5 million on YouTube. While that number is high, many political influencers have more. Joe Rogan has more than 20 million subscribers. Candace Owens, a right-leaning podcaster who frequently engages in antisemitic conspiracy theories, has 6.1 million subscribers. Charlie Kirk, the right-wing podcaster who was assassinated last year, had 5 million subscribers. Right-wing influencer Laura Loomer has around the same size following as Piker. Yet their comments receive far less scrutiny than Piker’s. When Loomer called for the entire Hispanic population of the United States to be fed to alligators, there was no House resolution condemning it. The outrage was mainly contained to Twitter, with no major news outlets even covering the comment.
The reason people are talking about Piker today is because of the many outrageous statements that he’s made on his Twitch streams. Most of the criticism of Piker is for his 2019 statement that “America deserved 9/11.” He has also said that reports of sexual violence during the Oct. 7, 2023 terror attacks were “rape fantasies” and “hallucinations.” He later admitted that sexual violence did occur, but said that “it doesn’t matter if rape happened on Oct. 7. It doesn’t change the dynamic for me.” He also called Haredi Jews “inbred,” although he later apologized for that comment. In 2025, Piker did a livestream from Tiananmen Square where he said that America should learn from China. This past July, Piker dressed up as Mao Zedong for a speech to the College Democrats convention and called Mao “one of the great leaders of this world.”
Of course, Hasan Piker’s views are deplorable and have no place in American politics. The violence of both the Sept. 11 and Oct. 7 terror attacks are despicable and inexcusable, not “deserved” or “hallucinations.” Mao Zedong killed more than 60 million Chinese civilians. Tiananmen Square was the site of a brutal massacre by the Chinese government. Acknowledging these realities should be the bare minimum for being taken seriously within our national political debate. Engaging in open debate is essential for our democratic system. Yet it is vital that while we never stop criticising our government for its failures, we do so without glorifying terrorists and dictators who have no respect for the very rights that allow people like Piker to express their absurd views.
But while Piker is free to express his approval of terrorism and dictatorships, we as a society do not have an obligation to listen. Hasan Piker has been placed in the center of America’s political debate. Left-leaning candidates who have never spoken to the man are asked on the debate stage or in interviews to denounce his statements. Almost all do so. Moderate and right-leaning elected officials are quick to condemn every shocking statement. Yet this only provides Piker with more exposure. Hasan Piker’s only relevance is the attention that he gets. He dresses like a dictator or praises a terrorist because he knows that when he does, the clip will play on repeat on Fox News while being blasted across Twitter accompanied by well-meaning condemnations, and at the end of the day, hundreds of people who had never heard of Hasan Piker now know exactly who he is. When a child is acting out looking for attention, you don’t give it to them. The same logic should apply to childish Twitch streamers.
