A 19-year-old Yemeni “pirate” went viral on TikTok and Instagram after posting videos onboard the Galaxy Leader—the Bahamas-flagged cargo ship hijacked by Houthi militants and held captive since November 2023—and spoke to popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker on Tuesday.
KEY FACTS
In an interview with Piker, who has over 2.6 million followers, the self-proclaimed “Red Sea Pirate” identified himself as Rashid, a 19-year-old Yemeni from Ibb Governorate in central Yemen.
Rashid, who has posted numerous videos onboard the seized cargo ship Galaxy Leader, said through a translator that his “only motivation that they have is their solidarity with Palestine and to stop the attack on Palestine.”
The Galaxy Leader was seized by the Houthi commandos, a group the U.S. said was returning to the list of designated terrorist groups on Tuesday.
However, the Yemeni stopped short of confirming he was a member of the Houthi military: “His answer is, he is a Yemeni who stands with Palestine,” Piker’s translator said.
Rashid’s original TikTok account was removed from the social media site, but his accounts on Instagram, X and Threads remain active (TikTok has not returned a request for comment on why the account was removed).
Twitch and Piker have not returned requests for comment from Forbes, but the popular streaming site does ban “content that depicts, glorifies, encourages, or supports terrorism, or violent extremist actors or acts,” according to its community guidelines.
yemeni pirates positing casual tiktok’s while the entire western imperial core are having a meltdown about their blockade on their ships is the funniest shit of 2024, surely. pic.twitter.com/72EvlHZeMs
— 🔻ميكا ☭ (@comrademika) January 15, 2024
h/t dr0id