The Twitter account belonging to the artist Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, has been restored as of Friday morning, less than 24 hours since African-American billionaire Elon Musk acquired the platform.
West began using his Twitter account after being suspended from Instagram, but almost immediately gained the ire of Twitter moderation staff after he was interviewed by Tucker Carlson.
Following that interview, West posted a tweet about going “death con 3 on Jewish people” then added that he could not be anti-Semitic because black people, themselves, are Jews.
I can't believe Kanye just said this "death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE, It's so hilarious and funniest thing ever pic.twitter.com/G2tf1vbf2L
— Deadinside (@dfrommyheart) October 9, 2022
Rather than allowing West to continue his thoughts, Twitter became one of the first major companies or brands to cut ties with the artist, himself a billionaire considered to be a fashion and music mogul.
After Twitter banned him, West lost bank accounts, concert dates, fashion shows, shoe deals, and the Donda Academy school he founded, all in reprisal for his allegedly anti-Semitic remarks.
Now his Twitter account has been restored, though there are multiple tweets that remain deleted. West’s most recent tweet is from October 8, and references the protests in Iran.
Iranian youth are leading a revolution against 44 years of dictatorship. The world needs to support them and honor their courage.
— ye (@kanyewest) October 9, 2022
One of Musk’s first actions after assuming the role of Twitter’s owner was to fire the company’s entire executive staff, including the top-level individuals who would have been responsible for determining whether West should be banned from the platform.
Among those escorted out of the building on Thursday night were Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s former “trust and safety” expert who reportedly quarterbacked the platform’s decisions to censor the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 election, and ultimately, to ban President Donald Trump in response to the events of January 6.
West had sought his own method of circumventing big tech censorship, however, and entered an agreement to buy the alt tech site Parler after his Twitter ban.
Trump, like West, appears to have largely given up on the idea of triumphantly returning to Twitter under Musk’s management, and issued a statement congratulating the Tesla and Space X CEO but hinting that he plans to remain on Truth Social.
