Very few guest speakers would dare to criticize the major conference hosting them from its own stage. But that’s why you invite Piers Morgan to these things.
Arguably the biggest news of the second annual SXSW London has been the cancellation of talks by Cenk Uygur, 56, the founder and host of the left-wing American media outlet Young Turks, as well as his nephew, progressive Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, 34, who has roughly three million followers on the platform. The speakers were invited by the U.K. offshoot of the long running Austin festival (which is owned by Penske Media, which owns The Hollywood Reporter) only to discover that Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood had banned them from entering the country. The reason the Home Office cited for cancelling their electronic travel authorizations, or ETAs? That their presence “may not be conducive to the public good.”
Both men have been extremely critical of Israel, taking sometimes wildly controversial stances — particularly Piker, who has expressed support for Hamas.
Now, instead of their SXSW London talks, both Uygur and Piker will be speaking virtually at the Oxford Union, a debating society that they were also planning to attend during their U.K. trip, on Friday.
