With a past record for violating the company’s guidelines, which prohibit users from sharing hate speech and other violent messages aimed at protected groups, Ye — the rapper formerly known as Kanye West — could be on his way to a permanent ban from platforms like Instagram and Twitter.
The Meta Content Policy includes provisions for accounts to receive “strikes” for content that violates the guidelines. Warnings are determined based on “the seriousness of the content, the context in which it was shared and when it was posted,” according to a company post explaining the warning policy. A Meta spokesperson confirmed for The Hollywood Reporter that the company will “remove accounts when they reach a certain number of hits within a certain period of time,” but the spokesperson declined to share the number of hits on West’s account.
Twitter also has provisions for permanently suspending an account based on policy violations, which the company notably did in early 2021 to former President Donald Trump.
Over the weekend, West faced disciplinary action from both Instagram and Twitter after he shared messages containing anti-Semitic comments that quickly drew condemnation from groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the Black-Jewish Entertainment Alliance. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Holocaust Museum also extended an invitation to the rapper to visit the museum to learn how “words can incite horrific violence and genocide” and to learn how “the Holocaust began with just words that unfortunately created stereotypes, racial and religious tropes and blaming others and led to the murder of six million Jews,” said a statement shared with THR.
Last Friday, West – via his @kanyewest account – began sharing screenshots of text messages allegedly between him and Sean “Diddy” Combs; in one of the messages shared on Instagram, West implied that Combs was influenced or otherwise controlled by Jewish people after Combs criticized West for making and wearing “White Lives Matter” shirts at his fashion show Yeezy in Paris last week. “I will use you as an example to show the Jewish people who told you to call me that no one can threaten me or influence me. I told you it was war. I’m going to get you some work now,” West allegedly texted Combs, according to the screenshot he shared on his Instagram account.
The next day, a Meta spokesperson confirmed the THR that it removed content from West’s account that violated Instagram’s platform rules and placed a limit on the account, preventing users from posting on their accounts for an indefinite period of time.
That evening, West returned to Twitter after a two-year hiatus to tweet that he would be starting a “death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE” and baselessly claimed that Jews were trying to “blackball” those who opposed their alleged “daytime row’. That tweet was taken down from West’s account for violating Twitter’s rules, and West has not tweeted on the account since Oct. 8, though Twitter spokespeople did not respond to requests to clarify whether the rapper had been suspended from the platform.
Still, West’s anti-Semitic posts this past weekend aren’t the first time the rapper has posted content in violation of the social media platforms’ rules. In March, West’s Instagram account was suspended for 24 hours after he shared a post containing a racial epithet based on a minstrel character directed at Trevor Noah. At this time, A daily show The host had spoken about West’s harassment of Kim Kardashian and her then-boyfriend Pete Davidson and described the behavior as “horrifying to watch”.
Earlier this year, the rapper also shared disturbing videos on his Instagram account that depicted a clay model of Davidson being kidnapped and buried alive, and in a second video being beaten by a skinned monkey. Those videos are no longer on West’s IG account, though Instagram representatives did not clarify whether the posts were removed by the company or by West.
As for a potential Twitter ban, the impending sale of the company to Elon Musk — and the billionaire’s close relationship with the rapper — could offer West additional protection from being booted from the platform. After welcoming West back to Twitter on October 8, Musk said on October 10 that he had spoken with West personally and “expressed [his] concern” about the rapper’s anti-Semitic tweet, adding that he said West took the concern “to heart.” Musk also previously said it was a “mistake” for Twitter to permanently ban Trump from the platform and said he only believes in permanent bans to remove bots and scammers.