Twitter and Instagram suspend Kanye West over anti-Semitic posts

Kanye West once proposed slavery as a choice. He called the COVID-19 vaccine “the mark of the beast.” Earlier this month, he was criticized for wearing a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in his collection at Paris Fashion Week.

Now the rapper, who is legally known as Ye, is embroiled in controversy once again – banned from Twitter and Instagram for posts that the social networks Sunday said violated their policies. In one anti-Semitic post on Twitter, Ye said that soon, according to Internet Archive records, “death con 3 will go to JEWISH PEOPLE,” apparently referring to the US defense readiness scale known as DEFCON.

“You have been messing with me and trying to blackmail anyone who opposes your agenda,” he said in the same tweet posted late Saturday, which has since been removed by Twitter.

The comment prompted a sharp rebuke from the Anti-Defamation League, which called the tweet a “deeply disturbing, dangerous and anti-Semitic period”.

“There is no excuse for his promotion of white supremacist slogans and classic anti-Semitism about Jewish power, especially with the platform he has,” the statement said.

Representatives for Ye did not return requests for comment.

Ye has alienated even die-hard fans in recent years, teasing and puzzling over albums that haven’t met with the critical or commercial success of his earlier records. Those close to him, such as ex-wife Kim Kardashian and her family, stopped publicly defending him after the couple’s bitter divorce and his disturbing posts about her recent relationship with comedian Pete Davidson.

But a social media suspension for Yeho, even by his standards, caps a tumultuous week. On Oct. 3, he wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt to debut his latest fashion line in Paris, drawing sharp criticism. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, White Lives Matter is a neo-Nazi group.

Rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs posted a video on Instagram saying he did not endorse the shirt and urged people not to buy it. On Instagram, Ye posted a screenshot of a text conversation with Diddy and suggested he was controlled by Jews, according to media reports.

Adidas said Thursday it was reviewing its lucrative sneaker deal with Ye. And on Saturday, Instagram blocked the rapper-entrepreneur’s posts for content violations. His Twitter account was locked on Sunday.

Twitter and Instagram’s social media policies prohibit posting offensive language.

Ye’s Twitter suspension comes just a day after he returned to Twitter after a nearly two-year hiatus — and was welcomed back by Elon Musk. “Welcome back to Twitter my friend,” wrote Musk, who last week renewed his $44 billion bid to buy Twitter after a month-long legal battle with the company.

The billionaire and Tesla CEO said he would remake Twitter into a haven for free speech and loosen restrictions, though it’s impossible to know exactly how he would run the influential network if he took over.

Ye’s Twitter account is still active, but he can’t post until the suspension ends — indefinitely.

Meta, which owns both Facebook and Instagram, occasionally imposes restrictions on accounts it says repeatedly violate its rules. Sanctions may include temporary restrictions on posting, commenting or direct messaging.

‘Ye’ has often gained a reputation less for his music and more for stirring up controversy since 2016, when he was hospitalized in Los Angeles for what his team called stress and exhaustion. It was later revealed that he had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

That year, he ended a show in Sacramento, California after just four songs, but not before a 10-minute tirade about Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Hillary Clinton, Mark Zuckerberg, radio and MTV. West soon decided to cancel the entire tour.

Since then, he’s regularly made headlines: running for president, continuing his feud with Taylor Swift, causing an uproar when he said slavery was a choice, publicly defending R. Kelly, and once inviting Marilyn Manson and DaBaby on stage with him when they collided. sexual assault and accusations against homosexuals. He also said he was suspicious of any COVID-19 vaccine, calling it “the mark of the beast.”