[FOX NEWS] - 'Cheerleading for terrorism': Twitch star called for new 9/11, dismissed horror of Oct 7

[NewsBot]

FIRST ON FOX: A popular Amazon-owned video platform geared toward teenagers and young adults is filled with extremist content, including one of its biggest stars praising terrorist groups and even blithely calling for another 9/11 to his 2.8 million strong audience, according to a Fox News Digital review.

Hasan Piker, who has millions of followers on Twitch, has broadcast propaganda from Yemen's Houthis, framed violent terrorist acts as "resistance," expressed sympathy for extremist groups who target civilians and downplayed the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks against Jews in Israel. Piker's shocking diatribes are among the most popular on the video game-streaming platform, which allows viewers to listen to their favorite personalities opine on topics ranging from pop culture to current events while playing video games.

"It doesn't matter if f---ing rapes happened on October 7," Piker said in a May 22 stream. "It doesn't change the dynamic [of Palestinians and Israelis] for me."

Piker, a 33-year-old Turkish American commentator who lives in California and grew up in Istanbul, is a former producer for the far-left internet commentary program, "The Young Turks," and is the nephew of its co-creator, Cenk Ugyer. His Twitch streams regularly hit over a million views and often have as many as 30,000 viewers at a given time.

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The political commentator has a cult leader-like status among his fans and maintains a Discord server with 125,000 dedicated followers. Many are almost certainly very young, as the minimum age to join Twitch and Discord is 13. A 2022 Pew study found that 22% of teenage boys used Twitch, and a 2020 Statista report revealed 34% of Twitch users were between the ages of 10 and 19.

In addition to his massive following on Twitch, Piker has millions more followers on Instagram and X. On YouTube, he regularly posts his Twitch streams to his 1.45 million subscribers.

In a recent stream, Piker broadcast propaganda from the Houthis, an Iranian-backed group in Yemen that has been designated by the U.S. as a terrorist group. Instead of explicitly addressing the materials as questionable propaganda, the streamer instead expressed sympathy and admiration for the group.

In the stream, which was posted on Sept. 28, Piker showed fellow Twitch streamer Nick Polom a Houthi "musical" released by the militant group, and said that it was "an act of resistance."

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"They do musicals about, like, their f---ing actions all the time," Piker said of the terrorist propaganda. "They love walking over like the American flag and the Israeli flag, side by side."

"They do not care about the heavy missiles… they will literally take the war to them no matter what… For them, it's an act of resistance. You know what I mean?" he added.

During the same stream, Piker broadcast propaganda video of armed Houthi terrorists seizing a cargo ship and expressed admiration for the group.

"They're flexing," Piker said. "You have to understand, this is a deterrent. Their goal is to film it and show it to the world."

Polom did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment about the exchanges with Piker.

Piker often and passionately defends the "anti-imperialist" motivations of Middle Eastern terrorist groups. During a stream uploaded to YouTube on Oct. 13, 2023, Piker berated a viewer who challenged his position on the then-nascent Israel-Hamas war.

"You want every single Palestinian to be f---ing executed ruthlessly on the streets so that you can build another f---ing theme park on Gaza. You f---ing baying pig, you f---ing bloodthirsty, violent pig dog," Piker argued. "Suck my d---."

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Though Piker says he is not aligned with Hamas and called the Oct. 7 attacks "one of the most unjustifiable and unimaginable and ongoing acts of cruelty" shortly after they began, his rhetoric has become more extreme since the Israel-Hamas war began, and he routinely defends violent Palestinian actors from any criticism.

"I don't feel comfortable placing the blame of a violent settler colony that has killed and displaced tens of millions of Palestinians [on Palestine]… I don't feel like it's appropriate to lay the blame in the hands of anyone that is resisting against their own brutal occupation," Piker said in an Oct. 19 YouTube video about the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

During an April 18 stream, Piker expressed that Hamas was the "lesser evil" next to the Israeli military.

"Hamas unironically is the lesser evil of the two," the streamer said. "If you look at the civilian casualties, if you look at the civilian deaths versus the deaths of soldiers, Hamas's percentages are infinitely better than Israel. That's just facts. So no, Hamas is the lesser evil."

Later, Piker implied that Hamas fighters had no responsibility for the mass killings and rapes carried out on Oct. 7.

"You agree… Oct. 7, and the responsibility of Oct. 7 and all the actions that took place are directly in the hands of the Israeli state," Piker said to a chatter. "I’m glad." 

During the same stream, Piker joked that "9/11 2" would be "so sick" while discussing the U.S. making a civil nuclear agreement with Saudi Arabia.

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"Oh my god, 9/11 2 is going to be so sick," the streamer said. "Give Saudi Arabia a nuke so they can do 9/11 2."

Hezbollah, a group that the U.S. State Department blames for the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings that killed 241 American personnel, is also discussed in Piker’s videos – where the commentator downplays the organization’s status as a terrorist organization.

"If Hezbollah is a terrorist organization, [then] America is the top terrorist organization," Piker said during a Sept. 17 stream. "Which it is, by the way. America is the top dog in terrorism and so is Israel."

During a stream that Polom posted on Sept. 28, Piker admitted that he did not "have an issue" with Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.

"Hezbollah is a paramilitary organization that is also a part of the Lebanese parliament," Piker explained.

"Do we like them or no?" Polom asked.

"I think it's a resistance group," Piker replied. "They're pretty successful against Israel. But everybody hates them, everybody in the region…I don't have an issue with them."

In January, Piker platformed a teenaged Houthi sympathizer he likened to acclaimed actor Timothée Chalamet due to his appearance. The stream was uploaded to YouTube under the name "INTERVIEWING YEMENI TIMOTHEE CHALAMET."

Piker jokingly called the Yemeni guest "Tim-Houthi" as a play on the name Timothée. The stream was unrelated to the actor, and the Twitch host made no claims that Chalamet supported any of the positions discussed in the video.

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The interview subject, Rashid Al Haddad, denies being a Houthi fighter but has gained notoriety for hopping on a ship captured by Houthis and posing as one of the militants. Al Haddad has been banned from both TikTok and X for appearing to support the Houthis.

At one point in the interview, Piker asked Al Haddad through an Arabic translator if he watched an anime called "One Piece," which his young audience would relate to. When the militant responded in the affirmative, Piker praised him.

"No way, sick. Yes, yes," Piker said. "That's fire. That's so fire."

"We think the Houthis, ansarullah, is [sic] doing what Luffy would do," Piker said. Luffy is the protagonist of the anime, and ansarullah translates to "Supporters of God," which is what Houthis refer to themselves as.

Later during the exchange, the translator ominously said that Al Haddad "likes adventures" and is a big supporter of a Palestinian state and that "he's looking to bigger and more exciting things."

"What does he have to say to the dumbasses that consider him to be a terrorist?" Piker asked. "What does he think about that? I just banned one of those stupid f---s in the chat just now."

"He says, ‘Who are they?’," the translator replied. "He's like, dismissing them," to which Piker responded, "Respect."

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Piker was temporarily banned from Twitch three times between 2019 and 2022, including once for using the term "cracker." His first ban occurred after he claimed that "America deserved 9/11" during a stream.

Twitch has not publicly addressed Piker’s comments, but in a 2023 interview with Bloomberg News, Twitch's CEO Dan Clancy acknowledged being a fan of the streamer.

"I like the frankness and bluntness," Clancy said. "He’s comfortable saying what he believes."

In 2020, Twitch banned former President Donald Trump, citing hateful content. Additionally, the platform's community guidelines state that Twitch "does not allow content that depicts, glorifies, encourages, or supports terrorism, or violent extremist actors or acts."

In a statement to Fox News Digital, Piker said that he has a "strong, positive relationship," with Twitch and disputes the idea that his streams violate the terms of service.

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"The assortment of short out-of-context clips from 8-hour deep dives into complex geopolitical issues are deliberately cut to associate me with a perspective that I do not hold," Piker said. "In my experience, Twitch’s fantastic Trust and Safety team upholds a rigorous moderation standard to combat hate speech and make it clear that hate has no place on the platform."

"It’s unfortunate that some are twisting my content to fit a narrative that doesn’t align with my values or the work I’ve done over the years," his statement added. Piker also said that Twitch had given him a warning about one of his Houthi videos.

"By way of example, the ‘Houthi video,’ which captures Yemeni people showing resilience amid a humanitarian crisis, is viewable on most social media platforms except Twitch," the commentator said. "After receiving a warning about this content from Twitch moderation, I have not since shared it."

Twitch is also known to have other problematic users. One of Piker's associates, a streamer known as Frogan, recently mocked U.S. veterans over a Twitch stream on Oct. 13.

"The U.S. military [service members] that are like, yeah, like, 'You know, I did this back then, but now I know it's wrong'...you don't deserve the PTSD," the streamer, who posts content about being a Muslim woman, said. "But like any other motherf---er.... f--- you. I hope you get PTSD."

Frogan later admitted on X that her remarks were "worded poorly," and said that her comments were made "out of frustration as they are currently bombing my family in the name of ‘liberation.’" She was given a 30-day ban for the comments.

Kris Ruby, a social media expert and the founder of Ruby Media Group, told Fox News Digital that both Frogan and Piker's statements are problematic.

"If you're talking about terrorist organizations, then that's not protected speech [under terms of service]," Ruby said. "I think a lot of this falls under violent rhetoric."

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Ruby also cautioned about the influence that Twitch could have on young viewers, especially viewers who are attached to certain streamers. She recently witnessed the power of the platform after a Twitch streamer entered an X Space she was in, bringing in hundreds of fans.

"The streamer had millions of followers. That level of affinity for the celebrity was greater than almost any other social media platform I have seen," she described.  "Why do people feel they have such a close relationship with live streamers in a way that is even more close than other platforms?"

"Anything with algorithmic gamification and video games are addictive to our youth," Ruby said of Twitch. "Video games are one of the number one ways that you can get to the hearts and minds of our youth." 

Kara Frederick, director of the Tech Policy Center at the Heritage Foundation, echoed Ruby's concerns about violent rhetoric on the platform.

"[Hasan] absolutely is promoting terrorist propaganda," Frederick said. "You have to put it in the context of the Houthis, who he's sympathizing with… they are actively attacking U.S. ships in the Red Sea…. At that point, you become a terrorist sympathizer. So it's not educational, it is cheerleading for terrorism against the United States."

Twitch made recent headlines after users in Israel were disabled from signing up starting on Oct. 19, but the company apologized and remedied the error on Oct. 21. Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-N.Y., has become a vocal critic of the platform and sent a letter to Clancy on Oct. 29 calling to "stop popularizing those who popularize antisemitism."

Fox News Digital reached out to Amazon, Twitch and Frogan for additional comment.