Censorship

Shame on the U.K. for Censoring Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur

"This ban is completely unfounded and must be reversed," writes Shabbos Kestenbaum.

Robby Soave | 6.1.2026 1:22 PM

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Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker (Illustration: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons/Noushad Variyattiyakkal / SOPA Images/Sipa USA/Newscom/Mehaniq41/Envato)

The United Kingdom's interior ministry is prohibiting two progressive commentators, Hasan Piker and Cenk Uygur, from visiting the country to participate in an ideas festival. This is abject censorship and ought to be condemned as such.

Uygur is a cohost of The Young Turks, a popular news program on YouTube. Piker, who made a name for himself as a Twitch streamer, is Uygur's nephew. Both are relentless critics of the state of Israel. Piker often goes much further than Uygur, and has repeatedly made gross and inflammatory statements, including that America "deserved 9/11" and offering praise for repressive communist regimes.

These are not good reasons to deny him entry to the U.K., however. In a statement, the government confirmed that it had rescinded the pair's travel visas because "their presence........

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