Kanye ‘Ye’ West Reinstated on Twitter Following 8-Month Suspension

Elon Musk restored the rapper’s account after antisemitic posts prompted his ban

kanye ye west
Kanye "Ye" West (Getty Images)

Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, has been reinstated on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

The account, restored Saturday, faced an eight-month suspension on the social media platform owned by Elon Musk after Ye posted a symbol combining a swastika and the Star of David, which Musk said at the time “violated the platform’s rules prohibiting incitement to violence.”

“I tried my best,” Musk tweeted in the evening of Dec. 1, 2022, just one day before Ye was suspended from the platform. “Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”

The rapper’s X page now displays a tweet from Dec. 1, 2022. Ye has yet to post anything new to the social media as of Sunday morning. Musk has also not yet commented on Ye’s reinstatement.

The conclusion of the eight-month-long suspension is Ye’s second suspension on X after the rapper faced a two-month-long ban from both Twitter and Instagram after posting antisemitic messages in October, all of which were removed by the platforms.

Following a slew of antisemitic comments across social media and on various guest appearances on shows or podcasts, the Anti-Defamation League identified at least 30 antisemitic incidents that directly referenced the rapper. These events included vandalism, banner drops, targeted harassment and campus propaganda distributions that occurred between the onset of Ye’s comments in October to the report’s publication in February.

With some of his platforms taken away, antisemitic chatter from Ye has been less noticeable in recent months, though he said that he shifted his perspective on Jewish people after watching “21 Jump Street” in an Instagram post in March.

“Watching Jonah Hill in 21 Jump Street made me like Jewish people again,” Ye wrote on Instagram. “No one should take anger against one or two individuals and transform that into hatred towards millions of innocent people. No Christian can be labeled antisemite knowing Jesus is Jew.”

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