Kanye kicked off Twitter
Rapper’s swastika post called out for ‘incitement to violence’
Los Angeles: Elon Musk kicked Kanye West off Twitter yesterday “for incitement to violence”, after the rapper posted a picture that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David.
The post came hours after an interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, in which Kanye sparked outrage by declaring his “love” of Nazis and admiration for Adolf Hitler.
Kanye had also shared a picture of a shirtless Musk getting sprayed with water, captioned: “Let’s always remember this as my final tweet.”
In response, Musk said: “Just clarifying that his account is being suspended for incitement to violence, not an unflattering pic of me.”
Musk, who previously called himself a “free speech absolutist”, has repeatedly said he believes all content permitted by law should be allowed on Twitter, and sought to remake the social media organisation after he took control in October.
In an appearance on Infowars, the show fronted by Jones, Kanye wore a black mask completely covering his face, as he ranted about sin, pornography and the devil.
“I like Hitler,” West said several times.
However, Jones addressed him as West as they spoke, Infowars billed the interview as being with Kanye, and at one point Jones took Kanye’s cellphone and posted a tweet on his account that appeared in real time.
Kanye has spoken openly about his struggles with mental illness, but his erratic behaviour has continued to raise concerns. The businessman has seen his commercial relationships crumble after a series of anti-semitic comments.
On Infowars, Kanye drew shocked laughter and even disagreement from far-right host Jones.
“I see good things about Hitler also,” he told Jones.
“This guy ... invented highways, invented the very microphone that I used as a musician, you can’t say out loud that this person ever did anything good, and I’m done with that.”
Hitler did not invent either of those things.
“I’m done with the classification, every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler. I like Hitler.”
Jones, a serial provocateur who was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for claiming one of America’s deadliest school shootings was a “hoax”, interjected that “the Nazis were thugs and did really bad things”. Kanye did not back down. “But they did good things too. We gotta stop dissing the Nazis all the time ... I love Nazis,” Kanye said.
Hours after the interview, social media platform Parler, a favourite of conservatives for its hands-off approach to moderation, said a deal for West to buy the outfit was off.