Before this tweet even went out, it was a complete disaster. Instead of protecting the Veracruz cosplay storyline, an angry tide emerged, criticizing Twitch for their perceived treatment of Hasan Piker, the controversial streamer.
The whole thing went down in the following order: Twitch had officially touted the cosplay scene at and attention to TwitchCon EU using a photograph of magnificent costumes. But within minutes, the comment section turned into a battleground. The biggest issue was Hasan Piker, the political commentator and mega-streamer who has made plenty of enemies these days for his latest updated takes on global conflicts.
Users in the replies were accusing Twitch of giving Hasan a platform, thus flaunting the platform’s own rules. One user, Necrosaro710, cried over the lengths of suspensions, basically accusing Twitch of giving Hasan a slap on the wrist (the suspension equals one day) for actually calling for violence while they themselves were suspended for seven days for calling Hasan a terrorist. People were definitely noticing the asymmetry in moderation.
In another, Derek straight-up asks Twitch, Are you going to do something about the extremist on your platform?, following a recent tragedy in which a shooter allegedly cited Hasan’s rhetoric. Whereas Nelval25 apparently threatened that advertisers were going to swear off if Twitch continues platforming racists. The heat was so unbearably intense that ironically, the heat brought Tectone, a popular streamer, to drop this savage tweet: “Gamer is not something to call Hasan Piker. Hasan is about to be 510% fucked.”
Oh! But it also gets messier. Several replies referred to Twitch as a “breeding ground for terrorism,” while others like SoulPrison16 demanded Hasan be taken down because his content is “costing two people their lives.” The Chickens came home to roost not just from the groundlings; verified accounts like TheMilkMan were also dropping links to prominent media outlets shaming Hasan and asking if Twitch is seriously okay with him representing their brand.
Meanwhile, in the Twitch replies to the thread… um… were actually… not addressing any of this. Instead, they basically released a reply to a random tweet about dancing saying, “she dances and dances and dances.” Classic deflection or bad timing? Either way, the juxtaposition of Twitch responses and enraged replies was wild.
There goes the question: So, from here, where do we go? The TwitchCon EU cosplay contest should be huge for the community—costumes, creativity, and all that good stuff. But thinking about it, the joker really is all controversy at present. Whether Twitch really can make a big deal out of the Hasan dramatics or just keep dodging it (literally) is still to be seen.
One thing is certain: If Twitch does not say a damn word about this soon, then the drama just gets to stay. With advertisers and major streamers already loosely throwing around questionable glances at the platform, this has never been a higher stake.
So: Killer cosplay at TwitchCon EU, but the real show? The one going on in the replies. Buckle your seatbelt!
