this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Hasan Piker, the biggest progressive political streamer in America, was detained by Customs and Border Protection for hours of questioning upon returning to the U.S. from a trip to France this weekend. Piker posted about the incident on X and later talked about it on stream.

He was detained in Chiago and questioned for two hours about protected journalistic activities like who he’s interviewed and his political beliefs. He was asked whether or not he’d interviewed Hamas, Houthis, or Hezbollah members. He was questioned about his opinions on Trump and Israel and asked about his history of bans on Twitch. His phone and laptop were not confiscated.

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[–] LandedGentry@lemmy.zip 43 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Any comment that has to point out his politics or "concerns with him" is completely missing the point.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 16 points 12 hours ago

Yeah, it's disgusting that people's first reaction to someone being unjustly detained is that.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 46 points 18 hours ago (12 children)

progressive

Pretty sure dude is a leftist. Capitalist media has never encountered this before.

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[–] mrodri89@lemmy.zip 27 points 18 hours ago

It's too bad they didn't let him stream it. That would've been peak content.

[–] HalfSalesman@lemm.ee 12 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I have a like/dislike perspective on Hasan Piker.

Hes tankie-lite. Critical support for him in this case though, fuck ICE.

Its probably an indicator that I really need to touch grass that I'm primarily curious what Ethan Klein and Lonerbox think of this.

[–] tempest@lemmy.ca 9 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Man, I liked some of Klein's videos from way back ( idubbbz as well) but when YouTubers shift from whatever content they were making to making content about the platform or others on it I usually check out real quick.

I also can't do 3 hour podcasts where people talk over each other and yell either so maybe I'm just not the target demo anymore.

[–] HalfSalesman@lemm.ee 11 points 15 hours ago

Its further an indication that I need to touch grass that when I read your name I think of Vaush's editor.

[–] arifinhiding@feddit.org 30 points 19 hours ago (4 children)

The questioning (though harmless) is often a stepping stone to more drastic measures. In the place where I live (not the US), my local religious police does questioning to make sure that activists are not posting their status online. This sort of measure helps them evade accountability and keeps the general public in ignorance.

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 51 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (1 children)

The questioning (though harmless)

There's nothing "harmless" about kidnapping people and coercing them into an interrogation.

This sort of measure helps them evade accountability and keeps the general public in ignorance.

Yep, that's some of the harm.

[–] arifinhiding@feddit.org 3 points 6 hours ago

That is true. Interrogations do harm communities to a larger extent than I initially thought. I recall how my neighborhood had to stop everything (such as art, videos, embroidery, food) just so they could avoid police kidnappings. We had three post-doctoral candidates in our district arrested for insulting the sultan (and his religion) and although they were smart enough to hire defense counsel, their lawyers told us that their clients are "jailed without trial".

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[–] shaserlark@sh.itjust.works 65 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Never heard of this guy but must have hit a nerve if a whole Hasbara brigade is showing up here to trash talk him.

That being said, it’s an interesting turn of events that apparently units around immigration take the role of Gestapo. Makes a lot of sense given what types of people would even want to do such a job but it’s still not what I expected when they said fascism is coming back.

[–] DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 48 points 21 hours ago

Right wing groups have been targeting him for his support of Palestine and being critical of Israel.

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