Elon Musk’s push for free speech over Twitter is showing it has limits after he suspended rapper Kanye West for posting a swastika over his account.
On Thursday night, West tweeted a photo showing the Nazi symbol inside the Star of David. The rapper then added the words “YE24 LOVE EVERYONE #LOVESPEECH.”
The tweet prompted Twitter to respond by suspending West’s account. Musk, who is a friend of the rapper, also weighed in and wrote: “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”
Before the suspension, West also posted an unflattering photo showing UFC owner Ari Emanuel hosing down a shirtless Elon Musk on a yacht. But Musk said the photo had nothing to do with the suspension.
West circulated the swastika after he appeared on the InfoWars show from notorious conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. During the taping, West repeatedly praised Nazis and Adolf Hitler.
The rapper then went on Twitter, where he posted the words: “I love the first amendment! Long live Ye! I pray to Jesus that Elon is real…” The statement implied West was ready to test Musk’s commitment to free speech over Twitter.
In a reply to West, Musk wrote: “Jesus taught love, kindness and forgiveness. I used to think that turning the other cheek was weak and foolish, but I was the fool for not appreciating its profound wisdom.” However, after West posted the swastika, Twitter moved to suspend West’s account.
The decision may be a little surprising since Musk bought Twitter to turn it into an arena for free speech. But in past interviews, Musk has indicated he still plans on enforcing suspensions against users —at least temporarily— for promoting hate speech.
“I’m not saying I have all the answers here,” Musk said back in April. “I do think that we want to be, just very reluctant to delete things. Just very cautious with permanent bans. You know, time-outs would be better than some permanent bans.”
It remains unclear how long the suspension will last. On Truth Social, the rapper posted a screen shot, which showed that Twitter planned to only suspend him for 12 hours. However, Musk then tweeted the words "FAFO," a slang term for "F### around and find out," which seems to have led to an indefinite suspension.
In the meantime, Musk is already facing some criticism from users for shutting down West’s account. “Apparently, content moderation and banning is now a good thing. Make up your mind,” wrote one user in response. Others are criticizing Musk's justification for suspending West and say the rapper merely tweeted a swastika image, instead of an explicit call for violence.
Musk also recently reinstated former President Donald Trump’s account on Twitter. But he did so by first holding a public poll, which found 51.8% in favor of reviving Trump’s account.
In the meantime, the Anti-Defamation League has noticed a disturbing increase in antisemitic content over Twitter since Musk took over the company. The ADL expects the situation to only worsen since the social media company has laid off and fired over half of its staff.