Kanye West deactivates Twitter/X account, as users slam Elon Musk’s inaction on antisemitism

Despite Kanye West - now known simply as Ye - receiving widespread condemnation for his Twitter/X account going on yet another antisemitic rant, and Friends star David Schwimmer being among those calling on Elon Musk to ban him from his platform, the tech entrepreneur didn’t end up suspending the rapper’s account, with West deactivating it instead.

Many of West’s recent posts are too horrific to quote here, but one post featured a white T-shirt with a swastika on it, which the account said is his “greatest performance piece thus far”, and another saw him declare his love for Adolf Hitler.

Musk’s most recent comment on the activity of Ye’s Twitter/X account came on Sunday, when he replied to one user’s complaint about the profile posting “literal porn” to state the account was now “classified as NSFW [Not Safe for Work]”.

On Saturday, the SpaceX founder reposted an article by the right-wing satirical news site The Babylon Bee with the headline “Disaster after Kanye West’s X account hacked by Kanye West” and added: “This is kinda true.”

However, come Monday, news outlets reported that West had deactivated the Twitter/X account himself – heading over to @kanyewest results in an error message stating that “this account doesn’t exist”.

After ranting about Taylor Swift’s appearance at the Super Bowl on Sunday, West published a tweet which read: “I’m logging out of Twitter. I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent.”

And Musk’s approach to the outrageous content posted on West’s account has been criticised by other Twitter/X users, including around the musician’s sharing of pornographic content:

Others slammed Musk for the role he played in letting West’s account share such vile comments without consequences:

Back in December 2022, Musk banned West from Twitter/X after he posted a swastika inside the Star of David, only to reinstate his account in July 2023.

And Musk has faced accusations of antisemitism himself, from expressing agreement with an antisemitic tweet which claimed Jewish communities have a “dialectical hatred” of white people and being accused of making a “Nazi salute” at an event celebrating Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president for the second time.

When the latter incident sparked online outcry, Musk decided to respond by making “jokes” about the Holocaust.

Musk is yet to comment publicly on the deactivation of West’s Twitter/X account.

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