SXSW festival slammed for not defending Piker and Uygur after UK ban
SXSW festival slammed for not defending Piker and Uygur after UK ban
The SXSW London festival has been slammed for failing to defend American political commentators Cenk Uygur and Hasan Piker after the British government banned them from entering the country to speak at the event.
Piker called SXSW “actual fucking losers”, and some speakers have dropped out in protest over what they say is SXSW’s failure to stand up for free speech.
The two were scheduled to speak at the Oxford Union and SXSW London, a major cultural festival.
Prominent British politicians have condemned the ban as an attack on free speech, accusing the government of targeting criticism of Israel.
While the Oxford Union has condemned the government’s decision to ban the two speakers and vowed to allow them to speak over a livestream, SXSW’s markedly different response has been widely criticised.
SXSW London said in a statement on Monday: “Decisions on entry to the U.K. are a matter for the Home Office and the individuals concerned. SXSW London’s role is to convene a broad range of diverse voices and perspectives.”
Piker and Uygur were scheduled to speak at SXSW events respectively titled “How the American Left Learned to Speak the Internet” and “Techno-Feudalism is Here. Who Are the Lords?”
Responding to SXSW’s statement, Piker said on X: “sxsw was a minor part of my trip to the uk, they totally didn’t defend me or cenk at all, they’re actual fucking losers and i will never work with them for the rest of my life. if you bought a ticket expecting to see me you should demand a refund.”
Piker also said on a livestream on Monday night that “Oxford Union at least had the integrity to be like, this is fucking bullshit, what is the British government doing? South by Southwest was like, lol peace!”
Outrage from fellow speakers
Journalist Ash Sarkar, a contributing editor at Novara Media, posted an email on X that she sent to SXSW, announcing she was pulling out of the festival.
“If I was in their [Uygur and Piker’s] shoes,” Sarkar said, “I would hope that any organisation which invited me to speak, and had their programming interfered with by the Home Office, would have had the minimal expected integrity to offer some defence of lawful free expression and condemn government overreach.”
Zara Rahum, a political advisor who had been set to speak alongside Piker on his panel at the festival, also denounced SXSW, saying: “The entire premise of our panel was rooted in examining why audiences increasingly distrust institutions, gatekeepers, and traditional power structures’ political discourse, and whose voices are permitted legitimacy in public life.”
She added: “There’s an obvious irony in hosting a conference about the future of media, democracy, dissent, and political power while responding so cautiously to the banning of one of the most influential political commentators from even entering the country. … I appreciate everyone’s time and the work that went into putting this together, but under the circumstances, stepping away feels like the only option for me.”
SXSW has been embroiled in controversy in previous years. In 2024 more than 80 artists withdrew from its event in the US in protest at its partnership with the United States military and defence contractor RTX Corporation.
In response, SXSW discontinued those partnerships, saying that “the US army, and companies who engage in weapons manufacturing, will not be sponsors of SXSW 2025”.
But last year the SXSW event in London was also criticised when it was leaked that former British Prime Ministers Tony Blair and David Cameron were scheduled to make unannounced appearances to speak.
Numerous speakers dropped out, citing Blair and Cameron’s records in the Middle East. Cameron was Conservative foreign secretary in late 2023 and early 2024 when the British government backed Israel’s war on Gaza.
‘Banned for criticising Israel’
The British Home Office said Uygur and Piker had been barred “on the grounds that their presence in the UK may not be conducive to the public good” and that “decisions to refuse or cancel an ETA [Electronic Travel Authorisation] on these grounds are based solely on an assessment of the potential risk an individual may pose to UK society.”
Uygur posted on X that the British government said “that my charge that Israel controls the American government through donations to 94% of Congress, while factual, is antisemitic nonetheless. Don’t know if facts will soon be banned in Britain.
“I didn’t get banned for criticizing the UK, but for criticizing Israel. They broke the irony record by saying it was because I said Israel might control other governments. I wonder if they’re going to ban themselves.”
The ban on Piker and Uygur has attracted criticism from prominent British politicians, including Green Party leader Zack Polanski and former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Polanski claimed the Labour government was “doing everything possible to silence criticism of the Israeli government”.
Meanwhile Corbyn denounced the move as “an attack on the freedom to criticise Israel, as well as the UK government’s own complicity in genocide”.
المصدر: Middle East Eye
