When Twitch streamer Hasan “HasanAbi” Piker is not playing Fortnite and Rust, he is busy getting in arguments over the latest political controversies.
HasanAbi is a Turkish-American streamer who grew up in Istanbul before moving to the United States. He graduated from Rutgers University in 2013 with a dual bachelor’s degree in political science and communication. Twitch streaming combined these two passions, allowing HasanAbi to share his political takes with a following of over 1 million users. He also took his opinion to The Young Turks as a network host.
HasanAbi gained popularity in 2016 when Bernie Sanders supporters started following him for his left-wing political views during the presidential campaign. From there, he built up a massive following of 600,000 on Facebook and 300,000 on Instagram. His YouTube had over 4.4 million subscribers at that time.
But HasanAbi’s political views haven’t always been a source of joy for the streaming and Twitch communities. HasanAbi was once banned for seven days after saying that the United States “deserved” 9/11.
In August 2019, HasanAbi went on a rant during a Joe Rogan podcast when Texas’ Rep. Dan Crenshaw was brought up. HasanAbi didn’t agree with the view that America should have military bases in over 100 countries.
“This is so insane. America deserved 9/11, dude,” HasanAbi said. “Like we totally brought it upon ourselves dude… Look at the way that this dipshit is running his fucking mouth, justifying genocide right now.”
HasanAbi later said he regretted his choice of words but defended his criticism of America. In fact, HasanAbi has only continued to get more opinionated about America and its politics. Whether it’s on Twitch or on Twitter, HasanAbi isn’t afraid to hold back his opinion. This is what has made him grow in popularity over time.
hmm i wonder what’s different here from a lot of the other people who were immediately released even if they orchestrated the attacks, or stole nancy pelosi laptop? ???? https://t.co/yPsjdky89Y
— hasanabi (@hasanthehun) February 3, 2021
A lot of the drama HasanAbi’s been through more recently hasn’t been related to politics at all. One upsetting moment came when he announced that his dog, Fish, was suffering from liver cancer. Fans were devastated to hear that Fish wouldn’t make it.
A lot of HasanAbi’s drama is on the political and social side of things. Twitch streamer Steven “Destiny” Bonnell II once admitted that he uses racial slurs in private. He defended this by stating that race is a “social construct.” Destiny said, however, that he wouldn’t call a black person “the n-word” to their face.
“What a fucking liar, dude! What a fucking weaselly little liar, dude!” HasanAbi said in response. “Can someone at least fucking enlighten Destiny that he’s literally lying to his audience?”
HasanAbi went on to insult Destiny, making for a fair bit of drama between the two popular streamers.
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