Elon Musk reinstated Kanye West’s Twitter account. Jewish groups were not happy.
Elon Musk, left, and Kanye West. Photo by Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh July 30, 2023
Major Jewish groups on Sunday criticized the restoration of rapper Kanye West’s Twitter account eight months after he was suspended for promoting antisemitic content. West, who is also known as Ye, went on several bizarre rants last fall in which he denied the Holocaust, praised Adolf Hitler and accused Jews of various conspiracies. West was banned from most social media platforms and lost several lucrative business deals.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, West assured the platform, recently rebranded as X, that he would refrain from sharing antisemitic content or using harmful language. As of Sunday afternoon, West had not published any new posts.
Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, called it “absolutely sickening” that West was rewarded and given a gold verification check mark — usually reserved for a business but used here because West’s name is a brand — while refusing to make amends for his actions last year. An ADL report released in February pointed to at least 30 antisemitic incidents that referenced the rapper’s vow last October to go “death con 3” against Jewish people.
In a recent interview, West’s former business partner, Alex Klein, said he decided to stop working with the rapper because of repeated antisemitic comments West made to him.
Elon Musk, Twitter’s CEO, suspended West’s account in December citing “incitement to violence” after West posted a picture that featured a swastika intertwined with a Star of David.
“I believe in counsel culture not cancel culture,” ADL’s Greenblatt said in a series of tweets on Sunday, “but this approach only works when the offender demonstrates some measure of contrition and an openness to learn. We’ve seen zero from Kanye.” Greenblatt questioned why anti-Jewish hate has been overlooked and rationalized on the platform.
Musk has called himself a free speech absolutist. Since his acquisition of Twitter last year, a large number of accounts operated by once-banned white supremacists and antisemites have been reinstated.
The American Jewish Committee said on Sunday that the “inexplicable decision” to reinstate West’s account “sends a terrible signal to Jew haters on the platform and everywhere.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
