Elon Musk bans Kanye West again

Twitter CEO Elon Musk suspended American rapper Kanye West from the platform again because of a swastika tweet. Ye published the depiction of a swastika in a Star of David.

Kanye “Ye” West recently dominated the media after Adidas ended its collaboration with the American rapper over anti-Semitic comments.

Elon Musk is now the next to punish Ye. He had only recently brought West back from exile. After the artist posted an offensive photo on Twitter, the Twitter CEO suspended him, according to the news magazine Bloomberg.

Kanye West posts swastika on Twitter

In his tweet, Kanye West published the image of a Star of David in combination with a swastika. The platform then removed the post.

Instead, a message initially appeared stating that the post violated the rules of the social media service. There was also a link to the site’s policies. The rapper’s entire account has since been suspended.

“I tried my best”: Elon Musk suspended Kanye’s account

Musk commented after initially only the post was removed. He explained that this wasn’t the first time West had violated Twitter’s rules on incitement to violence. Therefore, his account has now been permanently blocked.

It’s also not the first time Kanye and Twitter have parted ways. Twitter had already turned away from West in the past because the short message service classified his posts as anti-Semitic.

Just brief Twitter return for Kanye

Musk then got West out of ban two weeks ago. However, this reunion was short-lived. At the request of Twitter user Alex with the words “Elon, please fix Kanye”, posted Musk: “I did my best. Despite this, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. The account will be blocked.”

I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

Kanye West called off Parler deal

At the same time as Kanye’s account suspension, his plan to buy the social network Parler also seems to have collapsed. Various media reported that West has decided not to buy the Twitter rival after all. According to Parler’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, this decision was made in mid-November 2022.

Parler temporarily disappeared from the app stores after the storming of the US Capitol in January 2021. Apple and Google had accused the platform of not taking action against calls for violence from Trump’s supporters.

Besides, there was always reports on Kanye West’s National Socialist statements. In a recent interview with the well-known right-wing US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, he provoked outrage with statements such as “I like Hitler” and “I love Nazis”.

Even Twitter and Elon Musk have limitations

Elon Musk has always presented himself as an advocate of freedom of expression. Before his takeover, he had announced several times that he considered the moderation guidelines on Twitter to be too strict.

Nevertheless, there seems to be a limit for Musk too, which Kanye West has now crossed. Before his Twitter account was suspended, the rapper had around 32.2 million followers.

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