Kanye West had been suspended from Twitter by CEO Musk after the 45-year-old rapper tweeted a photo of a swastika inside the Star of David. West’s post violated Twitter’s rules against the incitement of violence. Musk, who had come to the platform with a “free speech” mentality, used the same rule Twitter first instated after they banned Trump from the platform following the January 6 riots.
"I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended," Musk tweeted on Thursday night. West, who seemed aware that his account was going to be suspended after texting with Musk, had posted an unflattering photo of Musk shirtless on a yacht with the caption: “Let’s always remember this as my final tweet #ye24.” Musk responded to the unflattering photo by writing: “This is fine,” but wrote: “This is not,” in reference to the swastika post.
West’s suspension from Twitter coincides with a disastrous interview he took part in with Alex Jones, host of the right-wing Infowars program, during which West said he “loved Hitler” and began promoting hateful and false antisemitic tropes. Musk also has an active Twitter account, and often will openly ask questions of Twitter users through polls on the site rather than through official marketing research, tweeted an image of a Nazi soldier in a meme about the site, and has made masturbation jokes on the platform.