X reinstates Kanye West’s account after Musk banned him last year

Social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) has reinstated the account of Kanye West (who legally goes by Ye) after he was banned last year for posting a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David.

Last December, months after Elon Musk took over the platform, Ye created a tweetstorm by posting a series of antisemitic comments along with a picture that violated the social network’s rules. At that time, Ye also posted an “unflattering” picture of Musk, but the Tesla CEO clarified that the rapper-producer wasn’t banned because of that.

Just clarifying that his account is being suspended for incitement to violence, not an unflattering pic of me being hosed by Ari.

Frankly, I found those pics to be helpful motivation to lose weight!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 2, 2022

Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that Ye’s account won’t be eligible for monetization and ads will not appear next to his posts. Last week, X rolled out an ad revenue-sharing program with global creators. Creators will need to have at least 500 followers and will need to garner 15 million impressions over the previous three months to be eligible for the program.

Ye hasn’t made any posts yet after his account was unbanned. However, the account was only restored after he gave assurance that he won’t post antisemitic content or hateful language, the WSJ report said, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.

Musk, who is a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist,” has made controversial decisions about restoring certain accounts after he took over Twitter. The list includes former U.S. President Donald Trump, far-right influencer Andrew Tate, who was banned by Twitter for misogynistic comments, and right-wing academic Jordan Peterson. Most recently, Twitter faced criticism for restoring the account of Dominick McGee, who posted an image of child sexual abuse.