After he was booted off Instagram a couple of weeks ago for violating its hateful-conduct policy, Kanye West’s account has been suspended again for a comment that appeared to call out “Jewish business people.”
Late Sunday, West announced on Parler, an alternative social-media platform that has attracted many disgruntled conservative Twitter users, that he had been banned on Instagram for 30 days, NBC News reported Monday. “We restrict certain activity to protect our community. Based on your use, this action will be unavailable for you until 2022-11-29,” the notification informing West of his account freeze said.
West was already temporarily deplatformed on Twitter and Instagram a few weeks ago for public rhetoric that disparaged Jewish people. In response, West said he would buy Parler. “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” he wrote in a statement. West’s Parler proposition comes amid tech titan Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, which he initiated amid allegations that the company’s content-moderation policies discriminated against right-leaning individuals.
The content that Instagram flagged on West’s account this time was a screenshot of text correspondence between the politically outspoken rapper and Russell Simmons, co-founder of hip-hop record label Def Jam Recordings. In the exchange, Simmons urged West to “leave this fight and strategize” and “rebuild your biz,” the outlet said. West responded by criticizing “Jewish business people,” striking a similar tone to the antisemitic rants he was “cancelled” for last week.
“I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually cant be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also,” a West tweet from earlier this month read. On a podcast, West alleged, “They blocked me out. The Jewish media blocked me out.”
As the scandal grew, Adidas, JPMorgan, and the Gap decided to cancel their business partnerships with West. Adidas, the athletic brand, said last week it will no longer continue its collaboration with West on their joint line of merchandise. The company said it “does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech.”