Twitch political commentator Hasan Piker landed himself in a questionable situation during a recent livestream when he mistakenly identified and put the wrong YouTube channel, Apex Crypto, on blast while waving around a toy gun on camera.
It all happened after Hasan came across what he thought was a threatening comment in his Twitch chat. Viewers said the message included language suggesting to “hang Hasan for treason.” Fired up by the message, Hasan paused his stream to look up what he believed was the commenter’s YouTube channel.
Going full theater mode, Hasan grabbed a toy gun from somewhere off-camera before coming back to his desk. He then started waving the fake gun around while showing the YouTube channel to thousands of viewers.
Things got awkward when people in the chat quickly pointed out that the YouTube channel he had put on screen wasn’t actually connected to the person who wrote the original comment. Hasan admitted he messed up but kept going with his stream without saying sorry or clearing things up for his audience.
This isn’t the first time Hasan’s reactive streaming style has landed him in controversy. The former Young Turks host, now one of Twitch’s biggest political voices, has been suspended before over hot takes and is known for going off on chatters.
Twitch doesn’t allow real guns on stream, but toy and prop guns are a bit of a gray area and are usually reviewed on a case-by-case basis. The platform has caught flak before for not being consistent with how it enforces the rules, especially when big-name creators are involved.
What went down is a reminder that having a huge audience means you have to be extra careful. When streamers with a ton of viewers mistakenly call out the wrong person, it can lead to innocent people catching heat they don’t deserve—even if that wasn’t the goal.
Apex Crypto has since responded on X to the recent event.
