Elon Musk Suspends Kanye West from Twitter Following Antisemitic Post: 'I Tried My Best'
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Elon Musk has suspended Kanye West from Twitter after the rapper posted an image of a swastika inside a Star of David.
"I tried my best," Musk posted on Twitter early Friday. "Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended."
The rapper and fashion designer has been embroiled in controversy for more than a month due to his antisemitic remarks.
West was previously banned from Twitter in October over a tweet that said he planned to go "death con [sic] 3 on Jewish people," which cost the rapper and fashion designer lucrative deals with dozens of companies, including Adidas. Despite this, his account was reinstated last month.
Musk considers himself to be a "free speech absolutist" and has said Twitter should get involved only to abide by local laws.
I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022
West's page now says "account suspended." He previously had more than 30 million followers.
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The news comes after the collapse of a possible deal for West to purchase the conservative social media platform Parler. In a statement to NPR, Parler said it had ended a previous agreement to sell the site to the rapper in mid-November.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images Elon Musk and Kanye West
On Thursday, nearly two months after it posted a tweet that read, simply, "Kanye. Elon. Trump.," the House Judiciary GOP's official Twitter also appeared to censure West by deleting the message — a move that came after West made antisemitic comments during an appearance on the alt-right web show InfoWars.
Randy Shropshire/Getty Images; Jason Davis/Getty Images Elon Musk and Kanye West
The tweet — posted on Oct. 6 — was initially seen as an embrace of West, Elon Musk and Donald Trump, all of whom have endorsed Republican politics despite earlier voting for or supporting Democrats.
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Douliery Olivier/ABACA/Shutterstock Kanye West at an Oval Office meeting with President Trump
During his InfoWars appearance, West praised Adolf Hitler and said Nazis "did good things too; we've got to stop dissing the Nazis all the time."(Hitler murdered approximately six million European Jews and at least five million prisoners of war.)
The comments came after far-right InfoWars host Alex Jones said the rapper didn't "deserve to be demonized," adding: "You're not Hitler, you're not a Nazi."
"Well, I see good things about Hitler also," West responded. "I am done with the classifications. Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler."
