Twitch / HasanAbiTwitch is being accused of playing favorites after Hasan was unbanned just one day after being suspended for comments he made about killing politician Rick Scott.
On March 3, Hasan Piker was banned on Twitch for a rant about fixing Medicaid in the United States.
“If you cared about Medicare or Medicaid fraud, you would kill Rick Scott,” he said, which resulted in his brief ban.
While Hasan claimed the statement was hyperbole and admitted he shouldn’t have used the term “kill” in his criticism, many believe that the political streamer should have been more harshly penalized for his comments.
Kick boss accuses Twitch CEO of playing favorites
Shortly after Hasan’s ban was lifted, Kick co-founder Bijan Tehrani put Twitch on blast for refusing to unban Adin Ross.
“Meanwhile Adin is banned 2 years and counting for ‘unmoderated chat,’ Tehrani said while quote-tweeting a notification about Hasan’s unban.
Adin Ross was permabanned on Twitch back in 2023 shortly after he joined Kick. During one of his streams, Ross showed his Kick chat, which contained racist messages, on Twitch, leading to his indefinite suspension.
“Twitch cannot hide behind advertiser excuses anymore. Dan Clancy picks and chooses who he wants on his platform. Creators on Twitch cannot have a voice unless it aligns with corporate,” he added.
“On Kick we will always support all creators regardless of politics or religion as long as they comply with the law.”
Tehrani had previously claimed that Twitch deliberately banned Ross just to hurt Kick, accusing the Amazon-owned site of “bending their policies” to justify banning certain creators.
xQc and more call out Twitch over Hasan’s unban
Kick staff weren’t the only ones slamming Twitch over its decision to unban Hasan. Felix ‘xQc’ Lengyel also chimed in on the matter with some choice words for the purple platform.
“The way me and some others were treated in comparison is just comical,” the French Canadian blasted. “What a joke.”
These remarks were echoed by YouTuber DonutOperator: “One day ban for a call to violence against a sitting US senator. F**king wild.”
Twitch streamer Tectone slammed Twitch, too. “A 1 day ban for calling for the death of a senator is insane,” he said. “I’ve seen Vtubers showing too much hips get banned for 2 weeks… Twitch is cooked.”
Kick’s co-founder agreed with xQc’s sentiment, commenting that Lengyel “has the power to speak on this.”
“The largest streamers on Twitch are walking on eggshells, they know if they go against the grain it could greatly hurt their career,” he added. “Being banned on Twitch is an industry blackball. Twitch streamers can’t have banned streamers like Adin on their channels or even react to their content. Twitch has the power to suppress streamers across the entire web.”
However, Tehrani added that he didn’t want Hasan to be banned for longer than Adin. “I’m advocating for all streamers to be given the same benefit of the doubt as Hasan regardless of their beliefs,” he stated.
This isn’t the first time Hasan has sparked backlash for his content. In 2024, Piker faced more calls for him to be banned after he showed a video about the Houthi Movement, a group designated as a Terrorist Organization by the US State Department, to fellow Twitch streamer Nmp. Hasan claimed he received a warning from Twitch after showing the video but wasn’t banned for the incident.
