Even on Elon Musk’s Twitter, there are red lines for permissible content, and Kanye West, who now calls himself Ye, crossed one of them with a late Thursday night post that prompted Musk to say his account will be suspended.
The artist tweeted an image combining the Star of David with a swastika, which got removed by the social media service. In its place is a message saying the post violated Twitter’s rules and a link to its policy page explaining enforcement actions. It’s the most high-profile test yet of Musk’s avowed policy of making Twitter a home for free speech, even where it offends, so long as it’s not in breach of the law.
Musk addressed the issue after the post’s removal, saying Ye had again breached Twitter’s rule against incitement to violence and his account will be suspended.
Two weeks earlier, the social network’s new owner welcomed Ye back from his Twitter exodus, at the same time as he restored former US President Donald Trump’s access. Ye had left Twitter after the service took action on his posts that it deemed antisemitic.
The cordial relations between the two men did not seem to last long, however, as Ye’s most recent tweet, which he labelled his last, featured an unflattering image of a shirtless Musk on vacation. Musk responded to that post with the words, “That is fine.” He also replied to the tweet containing the removed image with, “This is not.” — (c) 2022 Bloomberg LP