Twitter has suspended rapper Kanye West for posting an image of a swastika fused with the Star of David. Twitter CEO Elon Musk confirmed the suspension. “He again violated our rule against inciting violence. Account will be suspended,” Musk tweeted.
Kanye West, now known as Ye, has made a series of anti-Semitic comments over the past few weeks. Last Thursday he praised Hitler in an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
His comments led to his suspension from social media platforms, his agency dumping him, and companies like Adidas cutting ties with the artist.
West was suspended from Twitter in early October after posting a tweet of death to Jews. His account was reinstated at the end of the month when Musk took control of the company, but the billionaire tweeted: “Ye’s account was restored by Twitter prior to the acquisition. They did not consult me or inform me”.
They condemn Trump’s dinner with anti-Semites and ultra activists
Musk is under pressure to clean up Twitter after the changes he made when he bought the platform. Different groups allege that there has been an increase in racist and anti-Semitic discourse there. A senior European Union official warned Musk this week that Twitter must do much more to protect users from hate speech, misinformation and other harmful content.
In October Ye had offered to buy far-right social media site Parler, but the company said the deal fell through. At the time, Ye and Parlement Technologies, which owns Parler, said the acquisition would be completed during the last three months of the year. The sale price and other details were not disclosed.
“This decision was made in the interest of both parties in mid-November,” Parlement Technologies said in a statement. “Parler will continue to look for future growth opportunities and platform evolution for our vibrant community.”
Parler launched in August 2018, but didn’t start to gain momentum until 2020. It was taken offline in January 2021 over its ties to the failed coup at the US Capitol. A month after the attack, Parler announced a relaunch but didn’t return to Google Play until September of this year.
