The Twitter account of Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, appears to be reactivated Friday morning following Elon Musk’s takeover of the site.
Twitter locked the rapper’s account earlier this month after an antisemitic post that threated Jewish people.
Musk has not yet commented on Ye’s account status, but the last time the artist appeared on Twitter after a hiatus, Musk wrote, “Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!”
Ye’s reactivated account is one of the bold changes that have transpired in the hours since Musk bought the company Thursday night. After making Twitter a private company, Musk also fired the CEO, chief financial officer and the company’s top lawyer — signaling a new era for the social media site.
“The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner,” Musk wrote on Twitter Thursday night.
He added that Twitter would not become a “free-for-all hellscape where anything can be said with no consequences.” But Musk also said he wanted the platform to offer a “desired experience” based on users’ preferences, similar to the choices offered in movies and video games.
Many have questioned whether Musk’s vision will include lifting the account ban of former President Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended after the capitol insurrection.
In a Truth Social post on Friday, Trump wrote, “I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands, and will no longer be run by Radical Left Lunatics and Maniacs.” Vijaya Gadde, the top Twitter lawyer fired by Musk, played a key role in deciding to ban Trump from the platform.
As of Friday early afternoon, Ye has not yet posted on Twitter.
His Instagram account had also been restricted by parent-company, Meta, earlier this month. Upon his return to the site on Thursday, Ye posted, “I lost 2 billion dollars in one day and I’m still alive.”
Elon Musk made a list of his 10 must read books. One was “The “Determent of Lying to Society” I worked for Trump in Atlantic City. This pattern of Lying in AC was evident to employees, residents & State/City officials. Given Trumps life time pattern of Lying & I should add, language of a ghetto thug, even as the highest office in the country. Why would Elon Musk contradict himself based on a book he list in his top 10?
Evil Hitlerite Socialist/Communist Liar Jokementia Bribery should be banned from everything on the planet!
Speech that isn’t a crime in a country that values free speech should probably not be banned, even if it may be obnoxious. And in borderline cases there should be NO political bias in which party or group gets a pass while others get banned for something very similar. And to make it more interesting, hostile opposition to a group depends on how the group is defined; if that group is itself defined by illegal conduct, that’s a whole lot less obnoxious than if the group is defined by race, ethnicity, ancestry, gender, or legal (let alone protected) conduct.
More narrowly, it depends on whether one is or is not threatening criminal action or advocating criminal action to the point of recruiting for or conspiring to commit a crime (the latter being a bit fuzzy but _that’s_ what a minimally moderating forum’s lawyers should be sorting out).
The line on not too toxic discourse requires some restraint on the part of a speaker, but it also requires restraint on the part of those who react to them, to not go instantly defensive but first try to see if there might be SOMETHING in what was said that might not be totally invalid or monstrous. Admittedly I’m not thinking at the moment of a great example of something that’s provocative to the point of being offensive but could still contribute to discourse if reactions were more thoughtful, but I’m sure examples exist.
Hyperbole usually doesn’t help, esp. if it might be taken literally, but we can’t all communicate with the emotional restraint of Spock.