Kanye West suspended from Twitter after swastika post, Elon Musk says
“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,” Musk wrote overnight to a Twitter user telling him to “fix Kanye.”
The tweet followed a string of antisemitic comments by the rapper that have upended his business deals. An interview with far-right Infowars founder Alex Jones sparked uproar Thursday after Ye said, “I like Hitler.”
In a retweet of a clip from the interview, before Musk announced his suspension, Ye promoted his appearance, where he also said, “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.” He sent the swastika image in a separate tweet. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Friday.
During the talk with Jones, alongside white nationalist Nick Fuentes, Ye also said, “I see good things about Hitler,” and denied that Adolf Hitler, as leader of the Nazi party, oversaw the murder of 6 million Jews.
Ye’s incendiary comments prompted condemnation Thursday from across the political spectrum, nearly a week after he had dinner with former president Donald Trump and Fuentes. News of the dinner drew criticism of Trump from senior Republican officials in the country, to varying degrees.
Musk’s brief reign at Twitter since October has been marked by upheaval and concerns about content moderation policies.
The billionaire moved rapidly to roll back a content moderation system meant to define dangerous language and protect vulnerable communities online, while layoffs left one of the world’s most influential social media sites with a skeleton staff, The Washington Post reported.
Twitter reinstated Ye’s account just before Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the social media network. The rapper was locked out of the site, as well as Instagram, over other antisemitic messages. Musk, the chief executive of Tesla, greeted him upon his return to the platform in October, saying, “Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!”
Ye, a music producer and business mogul, has lost several lucrative deals in recent months over his comments, including partnerships with Gap and Adidas. The right-leaning social app Parler said Thursday that Ye will no longer buy the company.
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