Elon Musk reinstates Kanye West's X account with rebrand of the social media site

Just over a week ago, it was announced that Elon Musk would be rebranding the social media platform 'Twitter' to 'X' - and with this rebrand, the CEO re-examined a certain formely banned account.

Kanye West, legally known as Ye, had his Twitter account banned eight months ago when he tweeted a photo of a swastika blended with a star of David. This was the peak of a series of anti-semetic tweets which saw the rapper lose countless brand deals, contracts and some social media accounts.

In October of 2022, the musician, designer and producer tweeted that he would go “death con 3” on Jewish people, which led to the shortlived suspension of his account. However, less that two weeks after his readmission to the site, Ye praised Adolf Hitler and the Nazis before posting the aforementioned swastika image. This prompted a formal suspension by Twitter owner, Elon Musk, which has now been lifted.

At the time, Musk, who is a self-titled "free speech absolutist", tweeted: “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”

While the artist's account suspension has been lifted, Ye will not be able to monetise his account. This function was introduced earlier this year, allowing people to subscribe to certain accounts whose profiles otherwise remain private.

The platform X reportedly received reassureance that Ye would not use the platform to share antisemitic or harmful comments, and therefore felt confident in reinstating his account. In March, Ye confirmed he “likes Jewish people again” after watching Jonah Hill in the movie 21 Jump Street.

As of Monday morning (31/7), the rapper hasn't posted anything new on the account, with his last tweet dated December 2, 2022.

West deactivated his Instagram account earlier this year.

Read more about the X rebranding here.