Twitter/X quietly reactivates Kanye West’s account, but reports say he will be unable to monetize his account, and no ads will appear alongside his posts.
X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has reinstated the account of Ye, the disgraced rapper and business mogul formerly known as Kanye West. However, the company says that he will be unable to monetize his account, and no ads will appear beside his posts.
The account has been suspended since December for violating the platform’s rules on inciting violence, following multiple antisemitic comments made by West– including sharing a picture of a swastika. Those comments led to the rapid downfall of many of the musician’s well-known business partnerships, such as Balenciaga and Adidas.
After agreeing to buy the company last year, the platform’s CEO Elon Musk said Twitter would be “very reluctant to delete things” and “very cautious with permanent bans,” as Musk describes himself as a “free speech absolutist.”
“I tried my best,” Musk tweeted following West’s suspension. “Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence.”
Twitter’s safety team launched a new content enforcement policy in April, focusing on “restricting the reach of tweets that violate our policies by making the content less discoverable.” Since then, the team reported that tweets “proactively prevented” from receiving ads adjacent to their content “receive 81% less reach or impressions” than non-restricted tweets.
Under Twitter’s new Violent Speech policy, inciting or glorifying violence, wishing harm on others, and threatening others are prohibited — but some exceptions are made for “figures of speech, satire, or artistic expression when the context is expressing a viewpoint rather than instigating actionable violence or harm.”
Users who believe their accounts have been wrongfully suspended can submit an appeal, but it’s unclear if Kanye West did so or if something else prompted his account’s reactivation. Regardless, he has yet to post on the platform since regaining access.
