From Digital Streamer to Political Figurehead: The Ascent of Hasan Piker

Hasan Piker refers to it an everyday benchmark: “Imagine boarding a bus and you have half a minute to explain whatever online phenomena took place to the bus driver before them turning to you and going, ‘Get off the damn bus.’” Most online debate, no matter how intense, fails the test, he says – including an incident last weekend, when someone on a Dublin street asked to take a picture with Piker, then produced a picture of his dog and shouted “Free Kaya!” Forget the bus driver; attempting to explain the meaning of this particular event might well take the remainder of this article.

Navigating the Gray Space

Piker finds himself in this liminal zone increasingly these days. Until relatively recently, the 34-year-old was familiar primarily to the very online, especially Americans in their 20s and 30s, largely thanks to his dominant presence on the streaming channel Twitch. But since the last presidential election, Piker has become an sought-after voice in “offline circles” for his views on the beleaguered political left, and especially that inordinately fretted-over demographic, young men.

A Prime Target for the Right

Predictably, this also positions Piker a favorite target of the political right. To his detractors there is a lot to criticize: his direct political stances; his cultural background; his allegiances with left-wing politicians. But they also resent the fact that Piker – physically imposing and charismatic – does not fit stereotypical lefty caricatures. He has leveraged his appearance in revealing magazine photoshoots or social media posts.

“To be frank, I had no idea that this is what I was going to be doing,” says Piker. “For instance, if someone were to ask me, did you ever think that you’d become a Twitch streamer? I’d be like, what is Twitch?”

It’s early and he’s preparing to start his regular 11am show. He usually streams live for seven to eight hours straight, talking improvised about current affairs, lifestyle stories, his personal life, playing video games, reacting to memes and media clips, and responding to the never-ending stream of messages from viewers.

From The Young Turks to Twitch

Building himself on Twitch, a platform primarily for streaming video games, was a deliberate decision, Piker explains. His media career started out with The Young Turks, the progressive online news network. His parents are Turkish immigrants, and he was raised between New Jersey and Istanbul before majoring in political science. He graduated to his own show on the network in 2016 but in 2018 he chose to go solo on Twitch, to counterbalance what he saw as dominantly conservative, and often divisive views that infested the space.

“You can find ideological variety among the gamers, among the developers, amongst the consumers, but unfortunately, the market for political expression in this arena is so heavily dominated by the right,” he notes.

The Challenge with the American Left

This is the core problem with the American left in general, argues Piker: they’ve conceded so many cultural spaces to the right. “You still have to market your ideas … but they just completely abandoned all notion of marketing or branding.”

Piker is consistently critical of recent administrations on his show, especially on foreign policy, but he is not a loyal member of the major center-left party. His own politics are broadly social democrat and “compassion-driven”, he explains. “My position is actually the standard position in most of the world.”

Firestorms and Backlash

One of the dangers of Piker’s style of relaxed, accessible commentary is that he’ll occasionally go too far, which gives his opponents ammunition. He has been suspended from Twitch multiple times for deemed offensive content. In a highly publicized incident, in 2019, in the framework of a wider critique, he made a comment about a historic attack that was seized upon by conservative media outlets. Piker later apologised and said the wording was ill-chosen.

Likewise, Piker’s outspoken support for Palestinians and condemnation of certain government actions have led to allegations of bias, which he denies. He has also been ridiculed for expressing admiration for another major global power, after a trip there.

“I have no problem getting vilified by people on the right. I love when my enemies hate me,” he states. “It is what it is.”

Real-World Repercussions

The vitriol constantly risks to spill offline, however. On one occasion, Piker was detained by US border agents on his re-entry from travel abroad. They interrogated him about his views before releasing him. “I think they did it because they are aware of who I am,” he said.

These levels of enmity help explain the “Free Kaya!” incident in Dublin. It started with a Twitch stream where his dog, Kaya, yelped suddenly. Online detractors jumped to the conclusion that Piker was harming the animal, sparking a online controversy dubbed “the collar incident.” Even a major animal rights organization issued a statement. This led to the ambush by a random in Dublin.

Piker handled the situation in his stride. Online, though, the encounter was clipped from his live stream and disseminated with his response edited out. “They wanted to make it look like I was devastated,” he said.

The Divide Between Online and Offline Worlds

This highlights the difference between the offline and online worlds, he explains: “It’s very hard to maintain a very hostile energy in the real world without coming across as hysterical and odd. Exchanges on the internet create this environment where you can be as hostile as you want.”

That Dublin encounter was fairly low stakes. In the US, he feels less safe. The assassination of a right-wing commentator was a harrowing example of where this online hate can end up. Piker watched the event develop in real time on his stream.

Piker continues to do real-life streams in the US. “I can’t let fear guide my life. I’ve gotten death threats for over a decade,” he says. Unhealthy one-sided fan dynamics are part of the territory, he accepts.

The Future and Finding Balance

Having been prescient about the last election, how does Piker view the next few years? “Things change quite rapidly, but if you look at the avenues where there is some semblance of hope, it’s the progressive candidates that are actually really galvanising the public,” he says. He references the progressive “wing”.

“We have to embrace that, because I feel like it’s a matter of life or death at this point,” he adds. “So I will do everything in my power to try and prevent a worse alternative.”

The American left could arguably do with someone like Piker. But it doesn’t sound as if Piker is interested in traditional political office. He makes periodic media appearances, but he’s not tempted further into traditional media, he says. “The audience is moving in my direction, and away from legacy publishers.”

But on top of that, he clearly finds it fulfilling: “I find a lot of emotional fulfilment in what I do.” As he’s talking, he’s got one eye on the clock. Another marathon live stream is about to begin, and he’s eager to get started.