Topline
Left-wing political commentators Hasan Piker and his uncle, Cenk Uygur, were blocked from the United Kingdom where they were due for speaking engagements after the U.K.’s Home Office said their presence “may not be conducive to the public good,” with both commentators claiming the ban was due to their critical views on Israel.
The U.K.’s Home Office said Piker and Uygur were blocked from entering the country because their presence “may not be conducive to the public good.” (Photo by Noushad Thekkayil/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Key Facts
Piker and Uygur said in posts on X Sunday night they had been blocked from entering the United Kingdom, where they were both scheduled to speak at the SXSW London festival later this week.
Uygur said he was blocked from boarding a flight to London, alleging he was “banned for criticizing Israel” while criticizing the “oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country.”
Piker, in response to Uygur’s post, claimed his visa was revoked “at the behest of israel” and accused the United Kingdom of “betraying ‘liberal values’ for a genocidal fascist foreign government.”
The U.K. Home Office confirmed it blocked Piker and Uygur’s entry in a statement on Monday, saying their travel authorization had been canceled because “their presence in the UK may not be conducive to the public good,” though the statement did not mention their views on Israel.
The ban follows a push from some U.K. politicians and groups, including Labour Party member of parliament David Taylor and the U.K-based Jewish charity CST, to block Piker from entering the country, citing controversial comments the streamer has made criticizing Israel.
Key Background
Piker, 34, is a left-wing political commentator who regularly streams on Twitch, where he has more than 3 million followers. Uygur, a 56-year-old Turkish American, is the co-creator of the progressive news commentary program “The Young Turks,” which has more than 6 million subscribers on YouTube, and he briefly launched a long-shot presidential bid in 2024. Piker is Uygur’s nephew, and got his start working at “The Young Turks.” Both commentators are popular among the American left wing, but they have both courted controversy for their views on Israel and have drawn allegations of antisemitism both in the United States and abroad.
Piker’s Most Controversial Statements
Piker has drawn controversy for past comments saying he would “vote for Hamas over Israel every single time” and that “America deserved 9/11,” the latter of which he has since characterized as “inappropriate.” Piker has been positioned as a possible left-wing version of Joe Rogan, but some Democrats don’t believe he should be closely connected with the party, with some, including Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., saying they would not appear on his livestream. A bipartisan resolution introduced in April, Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., condemned online antisemitism and named Piker as an Internet personality who has spread “applauded Hamas’ terrorism” and downplayed the Oct. 7 attacks. (The resolution has not yet been voted on.)
Chief Critics
U.K. Green Party leader Zack Polanski called the ban on Piker and Uygur a “really grim decision,” saying the Labour Party government is “doing everything possible to silence criticism of the Israeli Government.”
Tangent
The U.K.’s Home Office has banned other activists and entertainers in recent months on the same grounds that their entry would “not be conducive to the public good.” In April, the Home Office blocked rapper and former billionaire Kanye West from entering the country after his planned performance at a London festival sparked pushback from U.K. politicians, who cited his history of antisemitic and racist comments. The U.K. also blocked eleven “far-right agitators” from entering the country in April, where they were expected to join a far-right “United the Kingdom” rally. Among the people blocked from entry was far-right Colombian-American activist Valentina Gomez, who is known for her anti-Islam views.
Further Reading
Eleven ‘far-right agitators’ banned from UK ahead of rally, government says (BBC)