Coinspeaker
X Reinstates Kanye West’s Account after Eight-Month Ban
Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter Inc, has restored the account of Kanye West after banning him from using the platform last year. West who runs his account as Ye will not be able to monetize it. Besides, there will be no ads next to his posts.
Kanye West has 31 million followers. In December 2022, he posted an altered image of the Star of David with a swastika symbol inside, which was an “incitement to violence.” Within a few hours, West’s account was suspended.
Notably, prior to that, West’s account was inactive for two months. The swastika tweeted in December was the first post by the rapper after the suspension of his account in October 2022. At that time, Kanye posted an anti-Semitic tweet that was also violating the platform’s policy.
Elon Musk commented:
“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”
The rapper has not created any posts yet. Notably, according to those familiar with the matter, the account was restored only after Ye assured that he won’t post antisemitic content or hateful language.
Earlier, a number of brands that used to partner with the rapper for various campaigns terminated the contracts with the musician because of his offensive and antisemitic comments. Among the companies that ended their partnership with Ye were Adidas, Gap, Foot Locker, Balenciaga, and Vogue. West’s antisemitic remarks cost millions of dollars not only to the rapper but also to the brands.
For example, Adidas which was generating nearly $2 billion a year (or 10% of its revenue) from Ye’s brand has lost about $250 million in sales for the fourth quarter of 2022 as a result of the partnership’s termination. Meanwhile, Kanye West’s net worth dropped to $400 million.
Twitter ‘Amnesty’ and Controversial Account Returns
Musk proclaimed himself as a “free-speech absolutist,” but his decisions on which X accounts can be restored back to active status are quite controversial. The billionaire faced scrutiny amid reinstating around 62,000 banned accounts, with each having more than 10,000 followers.
The list of those whose profiles were reactivated included former US President Donald Trump, Andrew Anglin – a self-professed white supremacist who founded the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, and right-wing academic Jordan Peterson. In addition, Twitter faced criticism for restoring the account of Dominick McGee, who posted an image of child sexual abuse.
When taking over Twitter, Elon Musk promised not to restore accounts banned as a result of abusive statements. However, the reactivation of many accounts demonstrated the opposite.
Jessica González, an attorney and co-CEO of the advocacy group Free Press, said:
“He agreed to all of those things in our meeting, but actions speak louder than words. I’ve had a lot of meetings with tech CEOs. And I’ve been made a lot of empty promises. And with Elon Musk in particular, he’s shown himself to be inconsistent, saying one thing that one day and another thing the next. So we fully intend to hold him accountable to these promises and more.”
As per the latest update on X using policy, severe violations may not lead to a ban, but to a suspension of an account. Severe policy violations include engaging in illegal content or activity, inciting or threatening violence or harm, and engaging in targeted harassment of other users, among others.
