Elon Musk has suspended Kanye West’s (aka Ye) Twitter account after the latter posted antisemitic tweets and violated the platform’s rules. In a reply to Mega founder Kim Dotcom, Musk clarified that Ye’s account was suspended for “incitement to violence” and not because of the music artist posting an “unflattering” picture of the Tesla CEO.
Just clarifying that his account is being suspended for incitement to violence, not an unflattering pic of me being hosed by Ari.
Frankly, I found those pics to be helpful motivation to lose weight!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
Earlier today, West went on a tweet rampage and tweeted a picture of a Nazi swastika merged with the Star of David. Soon after that, he posted on Truth Social that his Twitter account was temporarily locked. Later, Musk clarified that he “tried his best” to nudge West to follow Twitter rules, but the rapper still continued to post content that violated the platform’s rule against incitement to violence — resulting in a suspension.
I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
Musk rounded out the saga by Tweeting “FAFO” — fuck around and find out.
FAFO
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
This is not West’s first rodeo in terms of breaking Twitter rules. In October, his account was temporarily suspended for posting antisemitic content. But he doesn’t seem to have learned the lesson.
West has been the center of news coverage since last night after appearing on Alex Jones’ Infowars and praising Hitler. Following this appearance, the House Judiciary Republicans account deleted its October 6 tweet saying “Kanye. Elon. Trump”.
Soon after that, social network Parler said that Ye is not buying the company after all.
“Parlement Technologies has confirmed that the company has mutually agreed with Ye to terminate the intent of sale of Parler,” the statement said. In October, the company and Ye had reached an agreement for the rapper to buy the social network for an undisclosed amount.
Earlier this week, Twitter posted a blog post saying it is committed to healthy conversation under “Twitter 2.0” and the platform hasn’t changed any of its policies. But on the contrary, the company has changed multiple policies about account verification and a cool-off period for new accounts trying to buy a Twitter Blue subscription. Musk also offered a “general amnesty” to previously suspended accounts based on a result of a poll.
When it comes to overall moderation policy, the new Twitter owner promised a “content moderation council” with “widely diverse viewpoints” in October. There have been no developments on that front. Musk has talked a lot about being a “free-speech absolutist” and making Twitter a “public town square,” but the only policy he has repeatedly talked about is suspending accounts that are inciting violence.
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