Twitch streamer and The Young Turks Network host Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker sparked controversy on Tuesday by saying America “deserved 9/11.”
Hasan was reacting to Joe Rogan’s recent podcast episode interviewing Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas. Crenshaw, a military veteran, was defending the U.S.’s practice of having military bases in more than 100 countries, a point that Hasan took great issue with.
“This is so insane. America deserved 9/11, dude. Fuck it, I’m saying it,” he said.
“Like we totally brought it upon ourselves dude, holy shit. We did, we fucking did. {…} Look at the way that this dipshit is running his fucking mouth, justifying genocide right now,” Hasan said, alluding to civilian casualties in the Middle East.
Hasan continued by questioning why anyone would consider what he was saying to be controversial and pointed to the fact that the U.S. is still a military and business ally of Saudi Arabia as evidence of flawed foreign policy.
The 9/11 Congressional Report included evidence suggesting members of the Saudi Arabian royal family played a role in funding and organizing the attacks.
Later in the stream, when a viewer pointed out to Hasan that the clip of him saying America brought the terrorist attack on itself was on the front page of r/LivestreamFail, he joked that he would likely be getting a ban from Twitch.
According to Section 9 Article I of the Twitch Terms of Service (ToS), any content that is, among other things, “harassing, threatening, abusive, inflammatory, or otherwise objectionable,” is not permitted.
Twitch’s ToS for streamer conduct is likely vague on purpose to give the company wiggle room for dealing with content they don’t want on their platform. Hasan’s comments may prove to be a pseudo-litmus test for how Twitch handles provocative political takes.
Streamer Steven “Destiny” Bonnell reacted to Hasan’s comments by saying, “I don’t know if I disagree with that take {…} I think I’ve said that before.”
If Twitch does move to punish Hasan, it seems they would have to do the same to Destiny for cosigning the opinion.
At time of writing, neither streamer has been suspended by Twitch.
