Twitter, now known as X, reinstates Kanye West’s account: WSJ report

WASHINGTON - X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, has reinstated rapper and designer Kanye West around eight months after

his account was suspended,

the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Last autumn, Mr West posted an image that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David, and tycoon Elon Musk suspended the artist from the platform, which he had bought weeks earlier.

Mr Musk at the time labelled Mr West’s post as an “incitement to violence”.

X’s press office did not immediately respond to a query about Mr West’s account. By late evening, the rapper had yet to post anything new.

Mr West, who now goes professionally as Ye, assured the platform he would not use his account to share antisemitic content or use harmful language, the Journal said.

Anti-Semitic remarks by Mr West in 2022 cost him heavily in lost business deals. Adidas

cut ties with him

after a nearly decade-long partnership, abandoning his Yeezy-branded sneakers.

In May, the German company said the end of its highly successful collaboration with Mr West hit sales by about €400 million (S$587 million) in the first quarter of the year.

Fashion brands Gap and

Balenciaga also cut ties

with the rapper and designer.

Since Mr Musk

bought Twitter for US$44 billion (S$59 billion) in October 2022,

he has fired thousands of employees and cut moderation of content.

In December, he

reinstated former US president Donald Trump’s Twitter account,

although Trump has yet to return to the platform.

A week ago, Mr Musk and his newly hired chief executive Linda Yaccarino announced

the rebranding of Twitter as X

and said it would become an “everything app” that would allow users to handle all their finances as well as socialising.

Mr Musk also killed off the Twitter logo, replacing the world-recognised blue bird with a white X. AFP