Political commentator and popular Twitch streamer Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker is finally back on Twitch after a week-long ban. HasanAbi was originally banned for the usage of the word “cracker,” which Twitch staff deemed a racial slur.
For the days leading up to his ban, the usage and history of the word were frequent topics for both HasanAbi and his chat, and even solicited the opinion of guests and friends such as Myth. Several chat moderators were initially banned for using “cracker,” which only spiraled the discourse further.
HasanAbi then came to his moderator’s defense, even stating “I’ve been called ‘cracker’ more times than every single one of you fucking pasty little cracker bitches in my chat, okay?” and was banned shortly after.
HasanAbi was not the only streamer banned during this time; the discourse around the term swept through the political sphere of Twitch. Fellow frequent political commentator Vaush was similarly banned for using the word. Following the ban of HasanAbi, there was significant backlash against Twitch as countless streamers—including Nick Polom, 39Daph, and Myth—were all critical of the streaming platform’s decision.
This is HasanAbi’s third ban on his channel and tied for his longest ban at seven days. Though active on his Twitter throughout the course of his ban, this is one of the longest breaks the popular streamer has taken from Twitch. With over 1.7 million followers, HasanAbi has built one of the largest audiences on the platform with his political and reaction content.
HasanAbi’s heavily anticipated return has been advertised all week. Whether he will acknowledge the reason for his ban or return to the discourse he left off on remains to be seen.
