By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-29 20:51:07 | Updated at 2024-10-30 03:21:59
6 hours ago
Democratic Rep. Ritchie Torres is sounding the alarm about “an explosion of Jew-hatred” on the online streaming platform Twitch since the Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack by Hamas — singling out popular politics commentator Hasan Piker, according to a copy of a letter exclusively obtained by The Post.
The South Bronx lamwaker declared in the Oct. 29 missive to Twitch CEO Daniel Clancy that “the time has come for Twitch to stop popularizing those who popularize antisemitism” — like Piker, who enjoys one of the largest accounts on the platform with 2.7 million followers and was a credentialed streamer at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
“Since October 7th, there has been an explosion of Jew-hatred on social media platforms,” Torres wrote. “Hasan Piker has emerged as the poster child for the post-October 7th outbreak of antisemitism in America.”
Torres, 36, unloaded on Clancy for hosting Piker as well as other streamers who have railed against the Jewish people, praised late Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and vowed to “take our country back from these Jewish supremacists.”
“If the KKK or the Third Reich were a social media platform, it would be Twitch,” Torres thundered.
The congressman cited Piker hatefully calling a Jewish man a “f–king bloodthirsty, violent pig dog,” claiming that “It doesn’t matter if rape happened on October 7th,” and defending Iran’s Lebanon-based terror proxy Hezbollah.
“Platforming any of these terrorist organizations, as Piker has done, is beyond the pale,” said Torres, adding that the streamer’s “incitement of violence merits scrutiny from federal law enforcement.”
“Piker has even gone as far as … telling his followers to ‘kill’ and ‘murder’ people “in the streets’ and ‘let the streets soak in their red-capitalist blood,'” the lawmaker noted.
The far-left Piker has also joked about inciting gun violence against Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), praised a “brave mujahideen” for wounding Texas GOP Rep. Dan Crenshaw in combat and claimed “America deserved” the Sept. 11, 2001, Al Qaeda terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, lost his right eye to an IED explosion while deployed to Afghanistan in 2012.
Another recent video showed Piker and a friend laughing at an undecided female voter in Pennsylvania who stressed to Vice President Kamala Harris during a CNN town hall last week, “We need to bring the hostages home.”
Hamas kidnapped 254 people from Israel — including 12 Americans — and took them back to the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023.
Four US citizens were later executed in captivity by the terror group, another four were released in a prisoner swap — and four remain hostages.
“One wonders whether Mr. Piker has ever seen an anti-American or antisemitic terrorist attack he didn’t like?” Torres asked Clancy in the letter, which also references a post where the streamer likened himself to Soviet revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. “He seems to live in a morally inverted universe where the true terrorists on 9/11 and 10/7 were not the perpetrators but the victims.”
“I have a simple question for Mr. Piker and his enablers at Twitch,” the congressman went on. “What exactly do you find amusing? Are you amused by antisemitism? Amused by the kidnapping of 30 children, among them infants and toddlers? Amused by the abduction of aging Holocaust and Farhud survivors?”
Torres accused Clancy of being an “admirer” of Piker, whom the CEO has celebrated for “his frankness and bluntness” and for being “comfortable saying what he believes.”
“If Twitch feels even the slightest semblance of social responsibility as a corporation—a questionable proposition given the company you keep—then the time has come for Twitch to stop popularizing those who popularize antisemitism,” the congressman added.
Torres floated a congressional probe should Twitch allow antisemitism to proliferate.
In January, Piker made headlines by interviewing a Houthi rebel from Yemen who hijacked a ship and became a TikTok sensation before being banned by the social media app.
Neither Clancy nor reps for Twitch immediately responded to a request for comment.
