During a recent livestream, Félix “xQc” Lengyel took a moment to check what Hasan Piker was broadcasting on his channel, only to discover CNN playing while Hasan was visibly absent from his chair. The brief moment, captured during xQc’s own broadcast, highlighted the controversial practice of “chair-reacting” where creators leave third-party content running without providing commentary.
This happened when Hasan’s stream showed live CNN coverage while the political commentator had stepped away, presumably for a quick break. Viewers could see his empty chair while the news network’s content kept rolling for his audience.
This type of content consumption sits in a gray area of streaming rules. Critics say that broadcasting copyrighted material without always talking over it doesn’t really count as “transformative” enough for fair use under copyright law. Supporters fire back that it’s not realistic to expect non-stop commentary during marathon streams that can go on for eight hours or more.
What makes this interesting is that both streamers have built big chunks of their channels around reacting to videos, news clips, and other media. Hasan is known for his political commentary and news reactions, often stretching 20-minute videos into hours of content with tons of pauses and detailed chat.
XQc himself gets called out for his own react content controversies. His streams are packed with him watching and responding to YouTube videos, TikToks, and news segments. Because of this, some viewers can’t help but notice the irony when he calls out Hasan for pretty much the same thing.
People in the wider streaming world have argued for a long time about the ethics of “chair streams,” those moments when all anyone sees is an empty chair while copyrighted stuff keeps playing. Major networks like CNN technically own the rights to their content, so streaming them without an actual license can be a real problem.
For high-profile streamers like xQc and Hasan, who regularly attract tens of thousands of concurrent viewers, these practices get even more attention. Both have had people question just how much original value they really bring to what they’re watching on stream.
