We’re talking about the mega-popular Twitch streamer Hasan “Hasanabi” Piker again. However, instead of a scandal pertaining to his actions on the Amazon-owned streaming platform or something related to how rich the political commentator is, Hasanabi is making headlines for getting banned on TikTok for “hateful behavior” after his editor reposted a reaction clip from Hasanabi’s December 14 livestream on Black Lives Matter versus All Lives Matter.
Hasanabi is one of Twitch’s most popular broadcasters, garnering tens of thousands of viewers whenever he goes live on the Amazon-owned livestreaming platform. A left-leaning progressive socialist, Hasanabi has covered an innumerable amount of political events from the 2020 election to the January 6 insurrection and beyond. If there’s something going down in the world of politics, chances are Hasanabi’s reacting to it. This tends to get him in trouble, though, which is exactly what happened on TikTok.
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As his editor Ostonox noted on Twitter, Hasanabi was banned on TikTok for “hate speech.” Ostonox explained that the clip, a small segment from Hasanabi’s December 14 livestream where he reacts to a video by The Cut, was about “how ‘Black Lives Matter’ means we need to end the systemic discrimination and police violence against Black people in the United States.” The worst part of this ban is it happened on Martin Luther King Jr. day. Plus, his editor got hit with a ban as well.
According to TikTok’s community guidelines, hate speech and behavior are defined as “content that attacks, threatens, incites violence against, or otherwise dehumanizes an individual or a group.” The platform also delves into hateful ideology, explaining that it is rhetoric that “demonstrates clear hostility toward people because of their protected attributes” such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sex, and the like. Any content fitting these criteria, including those “promoting or justifying violence” and “claim[ing] supremacy over a group of people,” will be removed from the platform and could possibly result in a permanent ban on TikTok.
“Like, there you go,” Hasanabi said in the above clip. “That’s a great way to look at the extremes on both sides. One side is saying ‘Black lives matter and Black lives are a part of all lives, so all lives clearly don’t matter until Black lives matter because Black lives currently don’t matter.’ The other side is saying ‘Nah, fuck that, all lives matter actually. Black lives matter, too, you’re just fucking wrong for bringing that up.’ The extreme in that situation is one side saying, correctly, that Black people are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice system and sometimes even killed as a consequence of that disproportionate targeting and systemic racism. The other side is denying that reality. On the extreme side on the other side, they’re also taking matters in their own fucking hands. So, how can you look at that situation and go, ‘Huh, both sides have some ideas here’?”
Ostonox told Kotaku that Hasanabi’s been “banned a couple times” on TikTok in the past because the short-form video platform is “very quick to act when a video is reported.” He explained that when something gets reported, he and Hasanabi would submit an appeal, which would then get a “human reviewer” that would reverse the ban because “nothing violated any community guidelines.” However, it appears Hasanabi has committed multiple infringements and got the boot.
“Our latest video [was posted on January 16] and started doing really well because it satirized the current TikTok trend of pages that pair multiple colorful, engaging videos together to increase watch time,” Ostonox said. “I’m not sure which part constitutes ‘hateful behavior’ as the clip used is of him explaining why ‘Black Lives Matter’ is a phrase meant to highlight the systemic oppression of Black people in the US.”
Hasanabi tried appealing the platform ban but, according to a screenshot he posted on Twitter, was denied and remains yeeted off the platform.
In a livestream on the same day, Hasanabi reacted to the TikTok ban, shaking his head in utter disbelief and saying he’s “so fucking mad” about it.
“Anytime a TikTok of mine goes viral, it gets automatically mass reported and I get fucking permabanned,” Hasanabi said. “Every single time, dude. How? How? I mean, it’s insane. It’s insane, dude, it’s fucking insane. Every single time. Like, without fail. I hate it so much.”
Kotaku reached out to Hasanabi and TikTok for comment.
Black folks, as is evidenced just about everywhere, are disproportionately affected by a number of oppressive structures in the United States, not just the criminal justice system. To assume that Black Lives Matter is some dog whistle for divisive politics is misguided at best. We just want to exist in the world and have the same opportunities as everyone else. So, Hasanabi is right here: All lives don’t matter until Black lives matter, too. It’s that simple.
Hasanabi has been in hot water for a number of reasons in the past. Folks have gotten mad at him for buying a house, copping a Porche, even for saying the word “cracker” (which Wheat Thins exonerated him of with “The Pass”). Hell, Hasanabi could probably breathe and people would find a reason to get upset with the left-leaning progressive socialist. This is just the latest example in a long string of controversies attached to Hasanabi’s belt.
Update:
Twitch streamer Hasan “Hasanabi” Piker’s TikTok has been unbanned not long after the news started making headlines online. Hasanabi’s editor Ostonox posted about this latest development on Twitter, saying some components, such as his username (not his account handle), are completely different now.
Scrubbing through TikTok, Kotaku was able to verify that while Hasanabi’s username is user75276634197 at the time of writing, he’s back on the platform again—replete with the checkmark, a profile picture of him holding a dog, a link to his Twitch channel, and the video that got his account banned in the first place. His editor Ostonox, however, remains banned from TikTok for now.
Update 01/18/23 10:15 a.m. ET: Added info on Hasanabi’s TikTok getting unbanned while his editor Ostonox remains banned on the platform. Also, we’ve changed instances of “permaban” to “ban” to reflect the temporary status.