Two weeks earlier, Elon Musk had welcomed back rapper Ye on Twitter. Now this also crosses Musk’s red line. West’s account is the first thing the new Twitter boss has suspended.
Even Elon Musk’s Twitter has red lines for acceptable content, and Kanye West, now calling himself Ye, crossed one with a post late Thursday night. The artist tweeted an image combining the Star of David with a swastika, which was removed from the social media service. Instead, a message appeared stating that the post violated Twitter Inc.’s rules, along with a link to the policy page explaining the enforcement actions. Since then, the entire account has been banned.
Before the lockdown, Ye had 32.2 million followers. Musk has spoken out on the matter after the post was first removed, saying that Ye – not for the first time – violated Twitter’s rules against incitement to violence and his account will be suspended.
Two weeks earlier, the new owner of the social network welcomed back Ye after his Twitter exodus, while also unblocking former US President Donald Trump’s access. Ye previously left Twitter after the service took action against his posts, which it deemed anti-Semitic.
On Thursday, Ye was a guest in the online video format Infowars, hosted by far-right moderator Alex Jones, who himself has been known for his anti-Semitic conspiracy stories in the past. But even Jones intervened – at least half-heartedly – to Ye’s anti-Semitism on the show. In his performance, he said repeatedly that he liked Adolf Hitler and that one had to see the good side of the National Socialists. He also spoke of an allegedly Jewish-controlled media elite. The rapper was accompanied by Nick Fuentes, a well-known Holocaust denier.