British authorities said Monday they blocked Hasan Piker, a Turkish American online streamer, and another political commentator from entering the U.K. to speak at public events.
Piker, a liberal political commentator who is frequently critical of U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel and the war in Gaza, has 2.8 million followers on Twitch.
The Home Office said that the electronic travel authorization, or ETA, for Piker and Cenk Uygur, who hosts the “Young Turks” online political talk show and is reportedly Piker’s uncle, were canceled “on the grounds that their presence in the U.K. may not be conducive to the public good.”
“Decisions to refuse or cancel an ETA on these grounds are based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to U.K. society,” the Home Office said.
Piker and Uygur were due to speak at SXSW London, a culture, technology and creativity festival, this month. Uygur was also expected to give a speech at the Oxford Union, the prestigious student debating society.
“A sad state of affairs where obviously the interests of Israel take the highest priority,” Piker said on his YouTube channel.
Uygur said on X that he had been banned “for criticizing Israel. Are we free any more?”
Piker has faced criticism over some of his comments on the Hamas militant group, which is considered a terrorist organization in the U.K. and the U.S., among other countries.
Piker, a liberal political commentator
Yes the famously very liberal commentator …
Pffhhh tankie dip shit with a Ferrari is “liberal”. Thx for that laugh
You should probably learn what Liberalism is before making a fool out of yourself.
Unfortunately, “liberal world order” and “American Liberal” (little l liberal vs big L Liberal) mean two very different things but also intersect and make the use of the word on comment threads completely backwards.
Who has a Ferrari?
Did everyone move on from the “how dare you buy a house!” to purely invented fictions now?
don’t use words you just learned online, really makes you look like a fucking idiot
U don’t know what a tankie is xd
I’m not putting in 10 hours of research to make a paper on this but this is literally what he espouses on his stream
Shithole country doing shithole things
Shit hole government doing shit hole things, not in my name. Be careful not to lump all of us in with those other wankers, just because I was born here.
Welcome to being an American on lemmy for the past 2 years, it sucks I know and I’m sorry that your govt is doing stupid shit like this
we made our bed
we’ve been shit for decades now and keep making it the rest of the world’s problem
we made our bed
we’ve been shit for decades now and keep making it the rest of the world’s problem
You mostly only get that sentiment on .ml. Other instances have more than two braincells they share between all users.
Even in “democracies”, the general public often has limited agency in the actions of its government. It long ago became obvious to me that the government here (U.S.) does not serve the interests of the average person; we are just livestock to them. The veneer was thin before and is completely gone now.
To be clear, my previous comment was not aimed at you.
Thanks I appreciate it. I think it’s so hard to be lumped in with the same wealthy elites that dominate Western societies currently. It’s so frustrating. They are not me. I am not them. This country is being groomed and exploited by twats.
I’m going to devolve, create my own country. Welcome to Facetopia!!
Their country literally voted to leave the EU, then elected a right wing government.
At some point it stops being a shithole government…
Yep. Every, single, person in this country voted to shoot themselves in the foot, nobody else did anything. We all collectively agreed this would be a good thing /s.
It’s your reductionist, narrow-minded, ignorant response that creates the space for these very actions to take place. Where are you from, at least give me the opportunity to generalise about you too. x
Actually. Why feed the tro…
a liberal political commentator who is frequently critical of U.S. President Donald Trump, Israel and the war in Gaza
Self-described communist commentator who was cheering on hamas members who said they wanted to wanted to murder as many Israelis as possible but sure, based. Trump also criticized Bill Clinton and Bush, maybe if I just don’t mention everything else about him that requires hours of research no one will notice.
if it was the rhetoric and not the Israeli criticism that was the problem we’d seen the same actions against white supremacists or you know Israelis themselves
The ETA system has been used to shut down commentators before, it was even used to deny entry for a Christian apologist. This censorship of anyone (unless they’re literally advocating violence) is disgusting
Removed by mod
Or just not having one. They seem to be living really good for doing fuck all but being born.
That’s why I like to just refer to him as Chuck. Really gets home the point that at the end of the day, he’s just a dude in a silly hat.
With all due respect, the King is a figurehead with zero political influence. He is “head of state” in name only. Unlike, say, a Presidential system like the US or French where the president is elected, political, has HUGE consequences on the nation, heads the government and chooses the leaders of the house. Charlie does absolutely none of that.
Whilst I agree having a monarch is anachronistic in the 21st century, it works with greater impartiality than the “King” of the US. The UK and the other constitutional monarchies are never beholden to the whims of their head of state, unlike that of the major powers, not since Magna Carta and/or The English Civil War. USians seem to think we live in the days of Absolute Monarchs - which is kinda what you guys have.
Oh, I know how limited the power of the English crown is. I just consider any kind of inherited legal power to be an abomination. If you wanted a role like a king, and they were duly elected, even for lifetime terms? I suppose if that was your custom, fine. But it is inherited power, the act of establishing one class of human beings as legally above or superior to another class of human beings to be an insult to the very spirit of humanity. I think simply being a monarch, or one with any kind of inherited title with special legal rights, is a crime against humanity. To believe that you deserve special legal privileges, simply because of who your parents were? That is the height of arrogance. If there were any good monarchs they would renounce their crowns in shame.
Sorry, I consider myself a militant anti-monarchist. That’s just something I believe. The only good monarch is a dead one. No exceptions. They all deserve to have their heads in baskets!
I am anti-monarchist too but the point of the monarch is not were you think it is, not in the 21st century. And I agree with the legal status of anyone above others but in that sense the US president is now literally above the law now. https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Ok so he can give up power willingly if it’s useless.
You’ve failed to realise that the uselessness is the point
Liberal shithole doing liberal shithole things.
The Labour party isn’t liberal
Can’t find the original but Hasan when this happens to someone he doesn’t like: https://youtube.com/shorts/Ii-JerxqvW8
Thanks for this thread. A glorious honeypot for blocking Hasan fans.
Snicker, all this over a failed Nopixel role player who fooled everyone into thinking he is all that. Just nothing but a narcissistic bully.
You judge a person’s character based off of… checks notes their ability to RP on a Nopixel server?
I physically cringed.
I mean this with all due respect: please touch grass.
“on the grounds that their presence in the U.K. may not be conducive to the public good.”
gutting the NHS, intrusive internet age-verification and spending taxpayer money on building weapons to kill civilians in Palestine, however, are all somehow very conducive to the public good
the UK government cares a lot about the public good
I thought you guys didn’t support terrorists
This Piker in a carnival suit supports terrorists
“Account based in israel” ahh comment
Supporting Israel is supporting terrorism.
I thought you guys didn’t support terrorists
wtf made you think that
Yeah, lemmy people don’t support terrorists, they’re just playing their dog alphorns
“The public good”
SHUT IT!
So weird how USA pays Israel’s bills but UK is the one putting it’s citizens in prison for speaking against it.
Charles is in the Cuck chair
UK seems to be in an all out race to beat the US to full-on Orwellian dystopia. They’ve consistently been about 5-10 years ahead of the US when it comes to spying on citizens for decades now, but that gap does seem to be narrowing a bit.
Banning Israel’s political enemies from travel does put them squarely in the lead, but don’t count out the USians yet! Palantir’s Flock is spreading its wings, after all.
It really does feel weird as an American to see a foreign headline from a Western nation and think “yikes, things are bad over there”.
I feel like these other countries are like labs where groups can test out policy and public opinion campaigns there before bringing it usa
Eh… the USA is bigger and has more people to call this shit out, so the slide towards fascism can’t be as quick.
But the UK is, as a default, a lot more tolerant (or— I thought it was ), so the dynamics of all of this happening is… More complicated?
Seeing this all play out in real time is… Very weird and kind of fascinating
I feel like I’m learning a lot, but I also feel like I’m learning that I know nothing. More than anything, I’m feeling very confused.
UK falling into fascism isn’t likely, but authoritarianism, sure.
The UK doesn’t have a constitution, nor a constitutional right to freedom of speech. We’re a monarchy and have basically functioned under a family tradition for centuries of selecting the leader of the largest elected party as prime minister, and long may that continue. When government has tried to interfere in democracy, this family has clamped down on it. The constitution of the USA is nothing here.
Also we are not as centralized as the UK is. The good thing is we are a collection of 50 states with their own governments. The UK is just a collection of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and a few other places like Isle of Man that I can think of at the top of my head and that’s it.
Keep in mind, though, that the UK is about half the size as the East Coast of the US. It’s not a tiny country.
That is very big!
Landmass it encompasses isn’t exactly small but it doesn’t have as many governments which means draconian policy is easier to implement.
First of all, I just edited that comment about four times in the last minute, so you may want to revisit it….
But you’re also correct. Yet, at the same time, each American state also has its own government, and, in each state, each county and city has its own government.
So, we all very much know how provincial individual individualist governments can be
Anyone who has tried to contest a parking ticket can attest to this
Edit: there are at least 200 to 250 provincial governments overlaps in that map. I just showed you. I really don’t think you’re statement hold up.
A civilized country wouldn’t allow Israelis to enter.
There are plenty of Israelis who do not support what their government is doing. Should all Americans be banned from traveling based on their leader’s actions?
Yes. No treats for the treatlerites until we get our shit together.
I wouldn’t be sad about it honestly.
Israel is a cancer not a country.
Counterpoint: Countries are fully capable of being cancers. Case in point: Israel.
That is like calling cancer a distinct organism. It is not.
Cancers can be like a separate organism, albeit a parasitic one
Obviously good thing, right?
Yeah, I hate freedom of speech and press
Animals cheering on as their rights, privacy and wealth gets pull from under their feet.
Dunno about the other guy but Hasan can fuck right off simply for being an animal abuser.
Wait people actually fell for that? That’s pretty funny
It’s an amazing litmus test. Like if people support bds against Israel or if they comment/post in mwog
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cL__lbQL6g Oops
but trust me the dog that yelps when he uses the thing that looks like a shock collar actually just did it for no reason when I have never in my life had a dog do that unless they’re in pain, and also it just likes sitting there for 8 hours at a time and puts its ears down like it’s afraid when he says place.
Haha yeah animal abuse so funny
No people falling for hasbara is funny. To be clear, because I feel you might need this clarification, I’m laughing at you
Idk what you’re talking about. Dude shocks his dog
Would you be interested in buying this bridge I own:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Gate_Bridge
Normally I’d ask well over 1000, but you seem like a guy who’d know what to do with this bridge, and I’m in a pickle and I’d be willing to part with it for 600
Telling me to kms or something? Idk. You’re a pathetic individual.
No the funny part is that you believe that.
Of course.
And generally a horrible human being in many other ways too, of course.
Absolutely I just went for the low hanging fruit
In a sense this will likely be more impactful as a galvanizing force than any speech the two could give at SXSW
