Kanye West’s account on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter, has been restored — after the controversial rapper/entrepreneur apparently promised the Elon Musk-owned company he would refrain from posting antisemitic and other hateful content.
West, who now goes by Ye, was kicked off Twitter in December 2022 after he share an image of a Nazi swastika embedded inside the Star of David. (That post has been deleted.) At the time, Musk said West’s account was suspended for “incitement to violence.”
On Saturday, the company reinstated West’s account “after receiving reassurance that he wouldn’t use the platform to share antisemitic or otherwise harmful language,” the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an anonymous source. (Musk has not publicly commented on the reinstatement of West’s account; an inquiry sent to the company’s PR email address returned an autoreply that said, “We’ll get back to you soon.”)
As of Sunday morning, West, whose account on X/Twitter has more than 31 million followers, has not posted anything new since he was suspended eight months ago.
West has claimed he lost $2 billion in business deals over his antisemitic rants, including Adidas cutting business ties with him. Kim Kardashian, who is divorced from West, discussed her difficulties in dealing with his hateful remarks on a recent episode of Hulu’s “The Kardashians.”
Last week, Musk, who closed the $44 billion deal for Twitter in October 2022, announced that he was renaming the social network X — it’s a letter he really, really likes. The new X app will encompass “audio, video, messaging, payments/banking” and more, according to CEO Linda Yaccarino. As part of the rebranding, Musk last Friday installed a dazzlingly bright “X” sign on top of its San Francisco headquarters.