Call for Spotify Australia, Apple Music to dump Kanye’s music after anti-Semitic comments

Kanye West’s latest social media rant has prompted Australia’s Anti-Defamation Commission to write to Spotify Australia and Apple Music.

The Anti-Defamation Commission wants the Australian arms of Spotify and Apple Music to stop streaming Kanye West’s music.

Dr Dvir Abramovich, chair of the Melbourne-based non-profit, told news.com.au he would be writing to the streaming giants to request they kick the rapper off their platforms.

It comes after West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, was locked out of both his Twitter and Instagram accounts following anti-Semitic posts.

The 45-year-old father-of-four made a post on Instagram suggesting fellow rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was being controlled by Jewish people – a common anti-Semitic trope – over the weekend.

He then went over to Twitter and posted: “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”

It is believed he meant DEFCON 3, an alert used in the US military.

“The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also,” he continued.

“You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”

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This tweet from Kanye West has been removed.

A former TMZ reporter said he wasn’t surprised by the anti-Semitic comments and claimed West professed his love for Adolf Hitler back in 2018, when he infamously told TMZ that slavery was “a choice”.

During an episode of the Higher Learning podcast, co-host Van Lathan claimed the rapper had made the comments on camera but TMZ ultimately edited them out of the video.

“He said something like, ‘I love Hitler, I love Nazis.’ Something to that effect,” Lathan claimed.

West has been heavily criticised for his behaviour this month. Picture: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Dr Abramovich said Spotify Australia and Apple Music Australia needed to send a clear message to artists that anyone who engages in hateful conduct will be shown the door.

“There is no reason on Earth to keep hosting this artist and to allow him to thrive while hurting and vilifying vulnerable people,” Dr Abramovich said.

“This is not about censorship or free speech since Kanye can still create music and perform.

“This is about corporations saying that profits will never come first and that at a time when Jewish people, here and around the world, are facing an unprecedented surge in violence and harassment both online and offline, they, as entertainment titans, will take every possible measure to combat this growing threat.”

He told news.com.au his letter would be sent to the companies on Monday.

Last week, flyers promoting and recruiting members for a neo-Nazi group that believes “white Australians” face racial extinction were found in letterboxes in Sydney.

A QR code directed people to the National Socialist Network website.

The group is recruiting people to further its white supremacist agenda.

A QR code attached, with the caption “if white scan”, took people to the website of Australia’s largest white supremacist group, the National Socialist Network.

“We are working to secure the existence of our people and a future for white children,” the website read.

The group states members must be “white Australian of non-Semitic, European descent” and only accepts people with “an able body and an able mind”.

At the football Australia Cup final earlier this month, broadcast coverage captured Sydney United 58 fans in the stands appearing to be doing Nazi salutes.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and Australian TV presenter Lucy Zelić were among those that called for the fans to receive lifetime bans.

Football Australia confirmed one spectator has been banned from attending Football Australia-sanctioned matches, including all NPL, A-League, Australia Cup and national team matches, for life in the wake of the incident.

Big names slam West’s ‘abhorrent’ behaviour

Hollywood star Jamie Lee Curtis said she “woke up and burst into tears” after reading West’s “abhorrent” post.

During an emotional interview on US TV show Today, Curtis said: “‘DEFCON 3 on Jewish people?’ What are you doing?

“I mean, it’s bad enough that fascism is on the rise around the world, but on Twitter?”

Actress Jamie Lee Curtis was horrified by West’s tweet. Pictures: Getty Images; Today

Curtis’ father, late actor Tony Curtis, was the son of Hungarian-Jewish immigrants.

“If we weren’t reacting, who are we? What does it say about people who aren’t reacting?” she added. “Who woke up and read that and thought, ‘Oh, what are you having for breakfast?’”

Curtis wrote her own tweet to West telling him that his words incite violence and to “please stop”.

US TV personality Meghan McCain also blasted West over his posts, describing them as “poison”.

“Do not look the other way from this statement – it is the public hatred of Judaism and Jews and full f***ing stop there is NO place for this anywhere,” she wrote in a lengthy post on Instagram.

Kanye West and right-wing commentator Candace Owens wear White Lives Matter shirts. Picture: Candace Owens/Twitter

Last week, West copped intense backlash after debuting a shirt at Paris Fashion Week from his latest Yeezy line with the words, “White Lives Matter”.

He posed for a photo alongside right-wing political commentator Candace Owens, who was also wearing the shirt. Some of the models in the show wore the shirt down the runway.

White Lives Matter is often used among white supremacists as a racially driven response to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Originally published as Call for Spotify Australia, Apple Music to dump Kanye’s music after anti-Semitic comments