Kanye West deletes X account after Swift, antisemitic rants

Controversial rapper Ye has deleted his X account after ranting about Taylor Swift at the Super Bowl and just days after posting vile antisemitic slurs on the social media platform.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, shared posts late last week praising Adolf Hitler and Nazis on the social media platform.

Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has deleted his X feed.Credit: nna\sswain

The posts attracted a sensitive content warning and a demand from US actor David Schwimmer that he be banned from the platform.

“We can’t stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate-filled ignorant bile, but we can stop giving him a megaphone,” the Friends star posted to his Instagram feed.

Ye’s defunct X account.Credit: X

But Ye himself announced his departure from the platform, UK outlet The Independent reported.

“I’m logging out of Twitter. I appreciate Elon [Musk] for allowing me to vent. It has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board,” he reportedly wrote.

Ye’s farewell post came hours after he ranted about Swift, who was at the Super Bowl on Monday (AEDT) to watch boyfriend Travis Kelce play for the Kansas City Chiefs, who lost the game to the Philadelphia Eagles.

Although Ye appeared to be referring to Kendrick Lamar’s half-time performance in which he sang Grammy-winning track Not Like Us, which is understood to be directed at Lamar’s rival performer Drake, Ye took aim at Swift.

“If its [sic] about the culture … why are we letting Taylor Swift be seen on TV singing a song about taking a black man down and accusing of things that can take a black man down for life,” The Independent reported Ye wrote.

Ye’s verified Instagram account still exists, but all posts have been deleted from that platform and the feed is blank.

Taylor Swift, at the Super Bowl, was one of the recent targets of Ye’s rants.Credit: Getty Images

Ye had also attracted criticism for a Super Bowl advertisement for a site selling swastika shirts, hosted by Shopify Inc.

The musician and designer ran a commercial telling people to “go to yeezy.com” during the National Football League’s championship – a sought-after slot renowned for its massive audience – according to The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets.

A screenshot of Ye’s Instagram account.Credit: X

That advertised website featured a single item for sale on Monday: a white shirt with a black Nazi swastika in its centre, under the product name HH-01. The site’s source code and privacy policy show it was hosted by Shopify.

Shopify and yeezy.com did not reply to emailed requests for comment. Overnight, the site was taken down.

“All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform,” Shopify said in a statement on Wednesday morning. “This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.”

Shopify loosened its acceptable use rules last year. The policy still says users can’t do anything illegal when conducting business, but the company removed a clause banning “hateful content”.

In 2022, German sports company Adidas ended a commercial partnership with Ye following comments and actions, including antisemitic posts, that it called “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous”.

Selling goods sporting a swastika is illegal in Germany and other countries. Some of those countries appeared on the yeezy.com checkout page, but it was unclear if the site shipped to those places.

Canada-based Shopify also hosts a store that sells Holocaust denial merchandise, Bloomberg reported in November. Its executives have written in favour of free speech and have recently shared concerns about rising antisemitism.

Bloomberg

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