Elon Musk said Twitter suspended the rapper Ye on Friday after he shared an image of a swastika combined with the Star of David weeks after his account was restored.
“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,” Musk wrote overnight to another user asking him to “fix Kanye.”
The tweet followed a string of anti-Semitic comments by the artist that have upended his business deals. An interview with far-right Infowars founder Alex Jones sparked uproar on Thursday, in which the rapper said: “I like Hitler.”
In a retweet of a Thursday clip from the interview, before Musk announced his suspension, Ye promoted his appearance where he said: “I love Jewish people, but I also love Nazis.” He sent the swastika image in a separate tweet. Twitter did not immediately respond to request for comment early Friday.
Ye’s incendiary comments prompted condemnation Thursday from across the political spectrum, nearly a week after he had dinner with former president Donald Trump and white nationalist Nick Fuentes.
Musk’s brief reign at Twitter since October has been marked by upheaval and concerns about content moderation policies.
The billionaire moved rapidly to roll back a content moderation system meant to define dangerous language and protect vulnerable communities online, while layoffs left one of the world’s most influential social media sites with a skeleton staff, The Washington Post has reported.
Twitter reinstated Ye’s account just before Musk’s $44 billion takeover of the social media network. The rapper was locked out of the site, as well as Instagram, over other antisemitic messages.
The Tesla chief executive who now owns Twitter had greeted him back on the platform in October, saying: “Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!”
The musician has lost several lucrative deals in recent months, including partnerships with Gap and Adidas.
The right-leaning social app Parler said Thursday that Ye will no longer buy the company.
