US politician sends letter to Twitch, calls HasanAbi "the anti-Semitic voice of a systemically anti-Semitic platform"

US politician Ritchie Torres has sent a Congressional letter to Twitch, raising concerns about the rise of anti-Semitism on the platform and pointing to streamer HasanAbi (real name Hasan Piker) as a significant contributor. Torres shared screenshots of the letter, addressed to Twitch CEO Dan Clancy and Amazon executives Steven Boom and Andrew R. Jassy, in a post on X.

In his post, Torres made it clear that the letter aims to hold both Dan Clancy and HasanAbi accountable. He accused the content creator of denigrating Jewish people and the Twitch CEO of allowing systematic anti-Semitism on the platform. He wrote:

"Hasan Piker, who has described Orthodox Jews as “inbred” and a Jewish man as a “bloodthirsty pig,” is the anti-Semitic voice of a systemically anti-Semitic platform led by Dan Clancy. The time has come to hold Hasan Piker and Dan Clancy accountable."

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HasanAbi and Twitch CEO Dan Clancy accused of anti-Semitism by US congressman Ritchie Torres

In the letter, Ritchie Torres claimed that Twitch has seen an "amplification of anti-Semitism" in recent months, citing certain content from HasanAbi's channel as a root cause.

He wrote:

"I am writing to express alarm about the amplification of anti-Semitism on Twitch at the hands of Hasan Piker, who is one of the largest political streamers with a following of 2.7 million. Since October 7th, there has been an explosion of Jew-hatred on social media platforms."

Furthermore, Torres described the streamer as the "poster child of anti-Semitism," criticizing him for supposedly supporting the "Palestinian resistance." The letter also referenced an incident where the content creator hosted a stream with a suspected Houthi terrorist.

"Mr. Piker has all but exposed himself as an apologist for the sexual violence and savage rapes of October 7th. 'It doesn't matter if rape happened on October 7th. It doesn't change the dynamic for me,' Mr. Piker declares before finally admitting that "Palestinian resistance" (his euphemism for terrorism) is not perfect."'

"Mr. Piker has said he has "no issue" with Hezbollah, the world's most heavily armed terrorist organization in the world, and has given a platform to a suspected terrorist from the Houthis"

For those unaware, HasanAbi faced significant controversy in January 2024 when he hosted a supposed Houthi pirate who had been trending on TikTok. Despite the backlash, he did not face any penalties from the platform.

Torres also accused Dan Clancy of supporting HasanAbi, questioning how comfortable the Twitch CEO is with the streamer's controversial rhetoric:

"You(Dan Clancy) have praised Mr. Piker for 'his frankness and bluntness' and have said 'he is comfortable saying what he believes.' In light of all the anti-Semitism that has been revealed about Mr. Piker, do you still like his frankness and bluntness? Is your company still comfortable with how comfortable Mr. Piker has been with spewing Jew-hatred, however 'frankly' and 'bluntly' he might do so?"

This is not the first time Clancy has faced accusations of anti-Semitism. Earlier this month, H3 Podcast host Ethan Klein claimed that Clancy "hates Jewish people" while commenting on a TwitchCon panel and the unbanning of controversial streamers on the platform.

For context, the panel in question was led by content creators of Arab descent, such as Frogan. Following the Sabra tier list controversy, all involved were suspended for one month by the platform.