New Delhi: Twitter has suspended American rapper Kanye West’s account – barely two months after reinstating it – a day after he told a far-right TV show host that he liked Hitler.
The rapper has been in the cross hairs of public anger for several months now, facing charges of sexual harassment and anti-Semitism. He has also been dropped by big brands such as Adidas, Balenciaga and Gap.
As recently as last week, the rapper — who now goes by the name Ye — was in the news for his dinner with former American President Donald Trump and white supremacist political commentator Nick Fuentes. After the dinner, Trump called West crazy.
On Thursday, the rapper went on the offensive again with far-wing chat show host and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Appearing with Fuentes in the interview called “Infowars”, West sat with his face in a black mask, without any slit for his eyes, nose or mouth.
“I like Hitler,” he said during the conversation.
At another point, the rapper disputed that Hitler’s Nazis killed six million Jews, a statement which is illegal in Germany. He called this data “factually incorrect”.
Praise for Hitler
“I see good things about Hitler also. This guy… invented highways, invented the very microphone that I used as a musician, you can’t say out loud that this person ever did anything good, and I’m done with that. I’m done with the classification, every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” he said during the livestream.
West’s adulation of Adolf Hitler didn’t resonate even with Jones, who is known for his far right views himself. Jones replied, “The Nazis were thugs and did really bad things.”
Kanye, however, stuck to his guns. “But they did good things too. We gotta stop dissing the Nazis all the time… I love Nazis,” he said.
Twitter suspends account
After the interview, West took to Twitter and shared an image of a “swastika” with a Star of David — a symbol associated with Jewish identity and Judaism. Soon after, he shared a private conversation with Twitter owner Elon Musk. In the screenshots, Musk tells Ye, “Sorry, but you have gone too far. This is not love,” in reference to the photoshopped image of the “swastika” and the Star of David. In response, West texted, “Who made you the judge.”
Musk, who considers himself a free-speech absolutist, then suspended West’s account for “incitement to violence”.
Musk tweeted: “Just clarifying that his account is being suspended for incitement to violence, not an unflattering pic of me being hosed by Ari.”
It seems that earlier on, the American rapper had uploaded a photo of Musk being hosed by Ariel Emanuel, CEO of Endeavor, an entertainment and media agency.
West has previously admitted to having bipolar disorder and is open about his ongoing mental health issues.
Also read: Will Kanye West attend Grammys 2022 after being barred from performing at ceremony?