HasanAbi, a Turkish-American content creator famous for his Twitch streams, was allegedly held and questioned by federal officials at Chicago’s O'Hare International Airport.
Hasan Piker, who goes by the username @HasanAbi and is 33 years old, uploaded a 40-minute video on Monday (12). In this clip, he detailed being questioned at length regarding his opinions on Donald Trump and Hamas.
The Twitch streamer, with almost 3 million followers on the platform, departed from Paris and arrived in Chicago, USA, on Sunday (11).
In the video, Piker mentioned that he was held back even though he was a U.S. citizen and part of Global Entry, a government initiative aimed at speeding up immigration processes for trustworthy travelers.
HasanAbi is widely known for his criticisms of U.S. foreign policies and Israel. He claims that his detention was politically motivated.
“The goal here is to instill fear in people, to have a chilling effect on freedom of speech,” he said during his live broadcast.
+Watch Hasan’s testimony
“The government is now officially willing and able to intimidate you for your speech,” he said, calling the incident a violation of First Amendment rights.
"This is simply an attempt to get more likes through deception," stated DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.
"The claims that his political views led to the investigation are baseless. After the investigation concluded, he was immediately freed," she further stated.
The case of HasanAbi has emerged against a backdrop of rising contentious immigration practices and increased suppression of pro-Palestinian student demonstrations.
Image shared by @hasandpiker on Instagram. This material has been generated using AI technology and checked over by our editorial staff.
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