Hasan Piker Was Banned From Twitch Over a Violent Comment He Made on a Stream

Because he's one of the most popular streamers on Twitch, many were shocked to learn that Hasan Piker was banned from the platform on March 3. Hasan is best known for his left-leaning streams, and it was his politics that ultimately got him into trouble.

Following the news that Hasan had been banned, many wanted to better understand how Twitch justified the move. Here's what we know.

Hasan Piker was banned from Twitch over a comment he made about Florida Senator Rick Scott during a stream. During the stream, Hasan said that Republicans would "kill" Rick Scott if they actually cared about waste and abuse.

“If you cared about Medicare fraud or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott, OK?” he said while commentating on a video where House Speaker Mike Johnson is interviewed by CNN's Kaitlan Collins.

We don't know how long Hasan's ban might last, but it seems like it's temporary. When you attempt to navigate to his page now, you're greeted by a message saying his account is “temporarily unavailable due to a violation of Twitch’s Community Guidelines or Terms of Service.” Hasan has a following of 2.8 million on Twitch, and 1.5 million additional subscribers on YouTube, where his channel is still active.

Hasan further clarified his comments immediately after he made the controversial remark.

“The reason why I’m saying if you care about Medicare or Medicaid fraud you’d kill Rick Scott — and not make him a prominent part of the Republican party — is because he, to this day, is still, also known as committing the largest medicare fraud in U.S. history,” he explained. Although the comment was not an explicit threat, it seems like those at Twitch treated it that way.

The Medicare fraud that Hasan was referring to involved Columbia/HCA, a company that Scott founded, which was found to have defrauded federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid and was forced to pay a $1.7 billion fine as a result.

Hasan, meanwhile, has already responded to the punishment he received in a post on X, saying that he would choose his words more carefully in the future.

"I'm sorry! I'll choose my words carefully next time and say, 'If Mike Johnson cares about Medicare fraud (since he wants to cut $800 million from Medicaid/Medicare), he’d call for MAX PUNISHMENT for current Fla. GOP Senator/former gov. Rick Scott — who has done the most Medicare fraud in U.S. history!'" Hasan wrote. If you read the statement carefully, you might be able to detect a whiff of sarcasm.

Given that Hasan's ban isn't permanent, it seems that he'll likely be back to streaming in the near future. His political commentary has become a crucial source of information for many on the disaffected left. His massive following speaks to the impact of his streams, and his popularity stems at least in part from his willingness to speak without much of a filter.