Twitch has temporarily banned Hasan Piker for a fifth time on Monday shortly after the leftist streamer talked about how if Republicans really cared about Medicaid they would kill Florida Senator Rick Scott. “Big shout out to the right wing free speech lovers who took time out of their day screaming about dei & immigrants, to cry abt this!” he posted on X after his stream was taken down.
One of the Amazon-owned platforms’ top streamers, Piker is known for his unfiltered leftwing critiques and reactions to political news and world events. During a stream on Monday he was reacting to recent comments by House Speaker Mike Johnson about Republicans’ budget priorities when the comments that seemingly got him banned for the fifth time in the platform’s history were made.
The Louisiana Congressman told CNN that Republicans are looking to “carve out” waste, fraud, and abuse in welfare entitlements, including “$50 billion lost in Medicaid just in fraud alone.” Hasan interrupted the clip to argue that Medicaid fraud is predominantly perpetuated by providers rather than individual people before pointing out that current Florida Senator Rick Scott ran a healthcare company that was fined $1.7 billion back in 2003 for defrauding the federal government. Scott has dismissed that case “political persecution.”
“If you cared about Medicare fraud or Medicaid fraud you would kill Rick Scott,” Piker said on today’s stream. “You wouldn’t make Rick Scott, former Governor of Florida Rick Scott, you wouldn’t make him…the fucking head of the Senate Committee or something like the Republican fund raising initiatives.”
While Twitch has not confirmed the reason for Piker’s latest ban, the platform has guidelines banning users from making comments supporting hateful conduct or harm toward others. The company’s latest revision to this policy came in November 2024 as Twitch tried to moderate conversations about Israel and Palestine. Like many of the platform’s past attempts at clear and firm moderation, however, Twitch’s interpretation of its rules can seem vague and not always equally enforced.
“im sorry!” Piker wrote on X following the ban. “ill choose my words carefully next time & say “if mike johnson cares abt medicare fraud (since he wants to cut 800m from medicaid/medicare) he’d call for MAX PUNISHMENT for current fl gop senator/former gov rick scott- who has done the most medicare fraud in us history!”
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