“Incitement to murder”: Elon Musk wants Twitch to ban HasanAbi over controversial remarks

A heated debate started following Elon Musk's statement accusing him of "incitement to murder." The controversy started off when resurfaced clips of Piker's various past livestreams went viral on social media, thereby attracting renewed scrutiny on Twitch's moderation policies.

Viral Clips Resurface Amid Tragedy

On September 12, an X user by the name of @iAnonPatriot posted a 2-minute compilation featuring Piker and his associate "Mike from PA" from past broadcasts where they make inflammatory statements. One clip has Piker saying:"Kill them! Kill those motherf*kers! Murder those motherf*kers in the streets! Let the streets, soak in their red capitalist bloods, dude."Another clip from 2022 showed Piker with similarly graphic language, telling liberals to "gut" their enemies.

These statements resurfaced quickly online and were used against the streamer by his critics.

The timing of the post emphasized its yield. Just a few days prior, reported by conspiracy activists was the assassination of Charlie Kirk in a live event in Utah.

Elon Musk Reacts

The thread went viral and caught the attention of Musk, who reposted the clips attaching just two words: "Incitement to murder." The billionaire then supported fellow gaming veteran Mark "Grummz" Kern's call on Twitch to ban HasanAbi indefinitely.

Musk's remark unleashed a wave of debates on social media. Supporters of this argument assert that Twitch cannot ignore rhetoric that could lead to real-world violence; meanwhile, Pikers' fans claim that he is a satirical-leftwings commentator whose hyperbolic speech is being taken out of context.

Pressure on Twitch

With almost 3 million followers and 54,000 active subscribers, HasanAbi is amongst the most important voices on Twitch.

Yet, critics already took him to task for the inconsistent enforcement of Twitch content policies; the platform is now trying to answer new questions on whether and how it polices political speech.The controversy here illustrates the larger culture war for freedom of online expression. While critics call for answering speech that could potentially bring about harm in the real world, detractors rather see policing political expression as dangerous.