This was published 1 year ago
Twitter, now X, reinstates Kanye West’s account
By Shera Avi-Yonah
Twitter, now rebranded as X, reinstated musician Kanye West’s account on Saturday about eight months after suspending him for violating the platform’s rules.
West, who legally goes by Ye, won’t be able to monetise his account and advertisements won’t appear next to his posts, the company told The Wall Street Journal. As of Saturday he had yet to post via his newly reopened handle, which has more than 31 million followers.
Rapper Kanye West, now known as Ye, listens during a meeting with then-President Donald Trump at the White House in October 2018. Credit: Washington Post photo by Calla Kessler
The platform suspended West after he posted an image of a swastika combined with a Star of David in December.
X’s press office and representatives for West did not immediately respond to request for comment on Saturday.
“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,” the company’s owner, Elon Musk, wrote to a user at the time.
West’s swastika post was one of several antisemitic comments he made last year, a pattern that cost him business deals and, until Saturday, his Twitter account. He first sparked outrage after appearing in a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at his Paris Fashion Week show and went on to repeat a series of antisemitic tropes online and in interviews. At one point, he tweeted that he wanted to “death con [sic] 3 on Jewish people”.
West also lost backers from the fashion world, including Adidas, Gap and Balenciaga, and he was dropped by talent agency CAA and Hollywood financier and producer MRC.
A pair of Yeezy shoes are seen in a Foot Locker store on the day Adidas terminated its partnership with the American rapper and designer Kanye West in New York on October 25, 2022.Credit: Reuters
The decision to reinstate West falls in line with Musk’s previously stated philosophy on account suspensions. Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist” and said he did not approve a pause of West’s account that came before his December suspension. He also reinstated former president Donald Trump’s Twitter account last year, although Trump has yet to post on the platform since then.
The Washington Post
Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.