Kanye West has returned to Twitter after a ban and then a self-imposed “detox”, tweeting: “Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked”. New Twitter owner Elon Musk replied to the tweet, saying: “Don’t kill what ye hate. Save what ye love”.
West’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were restricted in October after he posted antisemitic comments on the platform. A few weeks later, he was apparently reinstated on Twitter but remained quiet on a self-imposed ban that Ye described as a “verbal detox”. This reportedly took place just before the Twitter sale was finalized, according to a tweet from Musk at the time. The new Twitter owner said the decision was made without consulting or informing him.
Ye returned to Twitter with a second tweet, writing “shalom” and a smiley face. The word is often translated from Hebrew as “peace”, but it also commonly used as a greeting or farewell.
Ye might have intended this to appear as an olive branch to Jewish people after his original comments, but without a formal apology or much of an acknowledgment of how his behavior impacts people, it’s hard to say that he’s truly seen the error of his ways.
Nonetheless, remaining fans of the rapper were apparently happy to see him back after his short absence, with his “testing” tweet racking up 678,000 likes in just five hours.
Aside from apparent public support in some circles, Ye was dropped by a number of lucrative businesses after his antisemitic posts. The most notable was his separation from Adidas, spelling the end of its well-publicized Yeezy trainer deal and his billionaire status.
As that controversy played out last month, West hit back with an announcement he was buying fringe social network Parler – a platform popular with conservatives. This is yet another similarity between him and Donald Trump, with both being banned from the platform, putting money into alternative platforms, and being reinstated around the same time.
Trump’s Twitter account was reinstated at the weekend, after an almost two-year ban. The decision was made after Musk held an online poll that narrowly went in his favor. Nonetheless, the former president has implied that he won’t be using Twitter, preferring his own social network, Truth Social, instead.
(featured image: Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)
