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.



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.
I feel like these other countries are like labs where groups can test out policy and public opinion campaigns there before bringing it usa
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”.