Kanye West at a performance in 2011. Image: Rodrigo Ferrari (CC BY-NC 2.0)
West was suspended last year for sharing antisemitic content, while the new X logo is causing complaints among San Francisco residents.
Rap artist Kanye West is back on Twitter – now known as X – after his account was suspended for roughly eight months.
The rapper, legally known as Ye, will not be able to monetise his account and agreed to not share antisemitic or hateful content, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. No new content has been shared on the unsuspended account at the time of publication.
West was banned from both Instagram and Twitter last year for posting antisemitic comments on the platforms. However, he was reinstated on Twitter after Elon Musk took over the site. At the end of November, Musk unsuspended multiple controversial accounts, in a wave of “amnesty” offers.
However, Musk resuspended Ye’s account after the rapper posted an antisemitic image on Twitter last December. The image was of a swastika depicted inside a Star of David.
Musk commented on the image that the US rapper’s account would be suspended as Ye “again violated our rule against incitement to violence”.
The image was posted hours after Ye took part in a controversial interview with Alex Jones. Ye made a series of antisemitic remarks during this interview, including comments about “the Jewish media” and saying he can “see good things about Hitler”.
X lighting problems
Meanwhile, Musk’s move to transform the branding of Twitter has caused some surprising consequences.
The company’s headquarters now has a large, glowing X logo on the top of the building. But the brightness of this logo has led to complaints from neighbours.
One person tweeted – or simply posted under the new branding – multiple videos that show the logo flashing brightly at night. The Guardian reports that San Francisco’s building inspection department is planning an investigation.
Musk claims the company has been offered “rich incentives” to move its headquarters out of San Francisco. He also claimed the city is in a “doom spiral with one company after another left or leaving”.
“San Francisco, beautiful San Francisco, though others forsake you, we will always be your friend,” Musk said in a post.
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Kanye West at a performance in 2011. Image: Rodrigo Ferrari via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
