Elon Musk Suspends Kayne West Account After Swastika Post

Tom Jowitt,
Twitter and other social media apps on a screen

Not again. Twitter post of a swastika sees account of American rapper Ye (aka Kayne West) suspended by Elon Musk

Elon Musk has suspended the Twitter account of American rapper Kanye West (otherwise known as Ye).

The suspension of Ye’s Twitter account comes after the rapper continued his anti-semitic outbursts, and he posted an image of a swastika, a symbol synonymous with the Nazis, inside a Star of David, a prominent symbol of Judaism.

Kanye West’s continued anti-semitic outbursts in recent months have led to major commercial partners cutting commercial ties with the rapper. This week Ye’s acquisition of right wing app Parler was terminated “in the interests of both parties.”

Ye (formerly known as Kayne West). Image credit Parlement Technologies

Hate speech

Elon Musk announced the decision to suspend Ye’s Twitter account once again, just two months after it was reinstated.

In October, before Musk completed the deal to buy the social media platform, Twitter had locked West’s account for an unspecified amount of time following a string of anti-semitic remarks which escalated into threatening and hateful comments about Jewish people.

Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, had welcomed the return of the American rapper to Twitter in November, along with Donald Trump, Andrew Tate and others.

“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,” Musk tweeted in a reply.

Liking Hitler

Ye’s tweet came after he made a number of anti-semetic comments in an interview with the controversial radio host Alex Jones on Thursday.

Ye referred to “the Jewish media” and said he saw “good things about Hitler” in an hour-long conversation with the conspiracy theorist.

During the interview Ye wore a covering over his face, and he was overheard during the interview saying he liked Hitler.

Twitter is legally obliged to remove illegal hate speech under laws in jurisdictions including the UK and the EU, and Musk has reportedly told EU regulators he will abide by those rules.