Twitter has suspended rapper Ye after he tweeted a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David.
It is the second time this year that Ye has been suspended from the platform over antisemitic posts.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk confirmed the suspension by replying to Ye鈥檚 post of an unflattering photo of Musk. Ye called it his 鈥渇inal tweet.鈥�
鈥淚 tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,鈥� Musk tweeted.
Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has made a series of antisemitic comments in recent weeks. On Thursday, Ye praised Hitler in an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Ye鈥檚 remarks have led to his suspension from social media platforms, his talent agency dropping him and companies like Adidas with him. The sportswear manufacturer has also into his conduct.
Ye was after saying in a post that he was going to go 鈥渄eath con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.鈥� His account was reinstated by the end of the month just as Musk took control of the company, but the billionaire tweeted that 鈥淵e鈥檚 account was restored by Twitter before the acquisition. They did not consult with or inform me.鈥�
Twitter's longtime practice before Musk took over was to suspend offending users temporarily and to escalate that to a permanent ban only if they kept breaking the rules. Musk has said he wants to avoid permanent bans and that speech should be allowed so long as it doesn't break the law in the countries where Twitter operates.
But Musk is now under pressure to clean up Twitter after changes he made following his purchase of the platform resulted in what watchdog groups say is a rise in racist, antisemitic and other toxic speech.
A report published Friday by the Anti-Defamation League said Musk鈥檚 moves have empowered extremists on the platform. The ADL said that in its role as a 鈥渢rusted flagger鈥� of antisemitic tweets, it reported two batches to the company on Nov. 2 鈥� just days after Musk took over 鈥� and again on Nov. 17 after he had changed its policies
鈥淚n two weeks, Twitter went from taking action on 60% of antisemitic tweets to taking action on only 30%,鈥� the group said.
ADL said it has noted both more antisemitic content and less moderation of antisemitic posts, a situation it says is likely to grow worse because of the cuts to Twitter鈥檚 content-moderation staff.
A top European Union official that Twitter needs to do a lot more to protect users from hate speech, misinformation and other harmful content ahead of tough new rules requiring tech companies to better police their platforms, under threat of big fines or even a ban in the 27-nation bloc.
Ye's Twitter ouster came after his bid to buy the rightwing-leaning social media site Parler was called off. Ye had offered , but Parlement Technologies, which owns Parler, said Thursday that the deal had fallen through.
鈥淭his decision was made in the interest of both parties in mid-November,鈥� Parlement Technologies said.
Parler is a small platform in the emerging space of right-leaning, far-right and libertarian social apps that promise little to no content moderation to weed out hate speech, racism and misinformation, among other objectionable content. None of the sites have come close to reaching mainstream status.
The rapper now appears to have migrated to another right-wing platform, former President Donald Trump鈥檚 Truth Social, where an account under Ye鈥檚 name posted about Musk on Friday. A representative for Truth Social didn鈥檛 respond to a request for comment but Ye鈥檚 profile carried a red check mark 鈥渞eserved for well known, highly searched VIPs鈥� to show the account is genuine.
Associated Press, The Associated Press
