Kanye Suspended From Twitter After Swastika Tweet
Kanye West has been suspended from Twitter once again over antisemitism. On Friday (Dec. 2) the controversial musician’s account was suspended by Twitter CEO Elon Musk after Ye posted a photo of the Star of David combined with a swastika per CNBC. Musk responded to a Kanye fan asking him to “fix” the rapper. “I tried my best,” the Tesla founder wrote. “Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”
Kanye’s antisemitic tweets are just an example of the increasing hate speech on the platform since Musk’s takeover researchers found. In October, Musk completed the $44 billion deal to buy Twitter. Since then, racist tweets have consistently been on the rise. According to the New York Times, Black Americans, Jews, and the LGBTQ+ community have been subjected to a soaring amount of hate speech on the social media platform. Slurs against Black Americans showed up on Twitter an average of 1,282 times a day. After the billionaire became Twitter’s owner, they jumped to 3,876 times a day, the publication reports. Slurs against gay men averaged 2,506 times a day on average before Mr. Musk took over. Afterward, their use rose to 3,964 times a day. Antisemitic posts referring to Jews or Judaism soared more than 61 percent in the two weeks after Mr. Musk acquired the site.
“Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist and homophobe that Twitter was open for business,” said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, per The New York Times. “They have reacted accordingly.”
As for Kanye, this is his second time getting his Twitter account suspended for his antisemitic remarks. Back in October, the Yeezy founder’s Twitter was suspended for a racist tweet as well as his Instagram account. The rapper’s Instagram account was restricted after he posted an exchange allegedly between him and Diddy. Users called out the rapper for using language that portrayed an antisemitic remark.
Due to Kanye’s antisemitic remarks many companies including Balenciaga, Vogue, and Adidas, have severed ties with the musician.
