Hasan Piker and his uncle Cenk Uygur were denied entry to the United Kingdom ahead of their scheduled appearances at SXSW London, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed on Monday. The UK Home Office cancelled both men's Electronic Travel Authorizations on the grounds that their presence "may not be conducive to the public good."
A Home Office representative told The Hollywood Reporter that decisions to cancel ETAs on those grounds are "based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to U.K. Society."
Uygur, host of the political talk show The Young Turks, said on social media that the ban was because he criticized Israel. "I tried to get on a flight to London to attend SXSW London and give a speech at Oxford. I've been banned for criticising Israel," he wrote. "Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country."
Piker responded to his uncle's post. "The U.K. has revoked my visa as well. All at the behest of Israel," he wrote, saying the West is "betraying 'liberal values' for a genocidal fascist foreign government." Both men have publicly condemned Israel for its war on Gaza following Hamas' October 7, 2023, attack on an Israeli music festival. According to the Hamas-run health ministry, 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since then.
According to The Times, the decision to block Uygur was based on concerns that his presence would risk exacerbating antisemitism. He has been accused of pushing antisemitic tropes through his platform. Piker, who has more than three million followers on Twitch and over 1.5 million on X, has previously said Hamas is "1,000 times better" than Israel and attracted criticism for saying he "would vote for Hamas over Israel every single time" on an episode of Pod Save America.
The SXSW London event team had described Piker as "redefining what political commentary looks like in the digital age." Uygur was scheduled to appear Wednesday at a session titled "Techno-Feudalism is Here. Who Are the Lords?" Piker's Thursday panel was called "How the American Left Learned to Speak the Internet."
Ash Sarkar, a journalist for Novara Media who had been set to chair Piker's session, said on X that the decision was evidence of an "authoritarian turn motivated by Labour's fear of being called antisemitic, and fear of being called out for their position on the genocidal war on Gaza," adding that the government does not "foster community cohesion by having the government ban people from speaking."
The UK-based Jewish organization Community Security Trust had urged SXSW last week to not allow the UK to serve as a platform for Piker. SXSW London runs from June 1 to 6 across roughly 20 venues in London's Shoreditch neighborhood.
