{"id":677788,"date":"2026-06-01T12:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/677788\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T12:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T12:03:09","slug":"cenk-uygur-hasan-piker-blocked-from-entering-uk-miss-sxsw-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/677788\/","title":{"rendered":"Cenk Uygur & Hasan Piker Blocked From Entering UK & Miss SXSW London"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tYouTube political commentator Cenk Uygur<\/a> and his nephew, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker<\/a>, have been blocked entry to the UK by the Home Office, meaning they will miss scheduled talks at SXSW London<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the past few minutes, the Home Office has confirmed that the pair\u2019s Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) \u201chas been cancelled on the grounds that their presence in the UK may not be conducive to the public good.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAn ETA allows a person to enter the UK for up to six months without a visa. The Home Office noted that, \u201cDecisions to refuse or cancel an\u00a0ETA\u00a0on these grounds are based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to UK society.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tUygur, the founder of left-wing politics channel The Young Turks<\/a>, had posted a series of messages on social media saying his right to travel had been refused, with Piker later posting a similar note.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been banned from the UK,\u201d wrote Uygur. \u201cI have tried to get on a flight to attend SXSW London and give a speech at Oxford. I\u2019ve been banned for criticizing Israel. Are we free anymore? This is oppression of Western citizens by our own governments on behalf of a different country!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tPiker linked in Uygur\u2019s original note and wrote: \u201cThe UK has revoked my visa as well. All at the behest of Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBoth men have long been critical of Israel, accusing the country of \u201cgenocide\u201d over its military attacks in Palestine. Since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, well over 70,000 people have died in Palestine, according to the health ministry.<\/p>\n

\n\tUygur \u2013 who is CEO of The Young Turks and has appeared on the likes of CNN, ABC News\u2019 This Week with George Stephanopoulos and NPR \u2013 was due to appear at SXSW London on Wednesday for a talk titled \u2018Techno-Feudalism is Here. Who Are the Lords?\u2019, while Piker had planned to appear a day later for a session titled \u2018How the American Left Learned to Speak the Internet.\u2019<\/p>\n

\n\tPiker has stoked controversy in the past for advocating for Hamas over Israel and has reportedly said \u201cAmerica deserved 9\/11,\u201d though he later apologized for the comment. Uygur, who briefly campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2024, is also critical of Israel\u2019s influence on the U.S. Reports in the UK press say the blocks were made to lessen the risk of exacerbating antisemitism.<\/p>\n

\n\tSXSW London begins this morning and runs through the week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"YouTube political commentator Cenk Uygur and his nephew, Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, have been blocked entry to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677789,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[236,295528,88,251537,295529,295530],"class_list":["post-677788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-cenk-uygur","tag-entertainment","tag-hasan-piker","tag-sxsw-london","tag-the-young-turks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}