Even though Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter looked to herald in a new era for the social media network, musician Ye (formerly Kanye West) was removed from Twitter on Thursday evening for an abusive tweet, despite having just been reinstated.
Bloomberg stated that on Thursday, West tweeted a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David.
Below is a recorded screenshot of the offensive tweet.
JUST IN: Elon Musk removes Kanye West's tweet of what looks like a swastika inside the Star of David. pic.twitter.com/iK8CnozDez
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) December 2, 2022
The image was erased after West’s Twitter account was suspended, and Musk responded on Thursday evening with two brief tweets.
Musk responded positively when West uploaded a shirtless photo of him. Since West’s account was removed, the message is no longer visible, but Musk’s reaction remains.
That is fine
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
But in response to West’s swastika/Star of David image, Musk simply tweeted the three words, “This is not.”
This is not
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
A few minutes later, on Friday morning, Musk tweeted that West’s account was being suspended.
“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,” Musk’s tweet read.
ELON FIX KANYE PLEASE
— Alex 🃏🏝 (@TheeAleexJ) December 2, 2022
Yahoo News said that West had been barred from Twitter earlier in October for posting that he was heading to “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE” before Musk gained control of the platform.
Bloomberg said that following Musk’s takeover, when many previously suspended accounts were reopened, West’s account was one of the most notable ones to be revived.
Musk even tweeted on Nov. 24 that he would grant “general amnesty” to all suspended Twitter accounts that had “not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam.”
Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022
Should Twitter offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2022
However, West’s amnesty was short-lived, since he broke Musk’s apparently more liberal Twitter rules against encouraging violence.
Intriguingly, a story from Jalopnik connects this peculiar swastika-Star of David emblem to Ralism, a “UFO sex cult” created by a semi-professional racing car driver.
West has not reacted on his account suspension or the publication of the swastika image.