Topline
Twitter took down a tweet by Kanye West late Saturday night and locked his account after the rapper and designer said he will go “death con 3” on Jewish people, the latest instance of bizarre behavior on social media, less than a day after Instagram restricted West’s account following an apparent antisemitic post.
Kanye West attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party hosted by Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg … [+]
Key Facts
West tweeted that when he woke up he would go “death con 3 on Jewish people,” which was widely interpreted as a misspelling of DEFCON, short for the defense readiness condition, an alert used by the U.S. military.
In the same post, West defended himself by insisting he can’t be antisemitic because “black people are actually Jew also.”
West also appeared to accuse Jewish people of blackballing “anyone (who) opposes your agenda,” adding “you guys have toyed with me.”
Twitter told Forbes West’s account was locked as a result of “a violation of Twitter’s policies.”
A Twitter spokesperson did not specify which policy West’s tweet broke, but Twitter bans harassment of others on the basis of race and religious affiliation and threats of violence, according to the platform’s guidelines.
Key Background
The tweet is the latest in a string of troubling social media posts from West. The rapper was blocked from using Instagram Saturday after he posted a screenshot of a conversation with rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs, whom West accused of being controlled by Jewish people, employing a longtime antisemitic trope. After he was removed from Instagram, West posted an old photograph on Twitter that appears to show him doing karaoke with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with the caption “Look at this Mark…how you gone kick me off Instagram.” Tesla CEO Elon Musk—who has offered to purchase Twitter—welcomed West back to the platform. On Monday, West drew backlash for wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with “White Lives Matter” during a Yeezy show for Paris Fashion Week. He attacked a Vogue editor who criticized the shirt and posted photos of the editor, used their name and shared a screenshot of their Instagram profile, before deleting the posts. West also baselessly accused billionaire LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault of “(killing) my best friend,” a reference to late Louis Vuitton menswear director Virgil Abloh, who died last year of cancer. In 2020, as West faced backlash over controversial statements he made amid his failed presidential bid, West’s then-wife Kim Kardashian said West’s inflammatory comments “sometimes do not align with his intentions” and described the difficulties West has coping with “pressure and isolation that is heightened by his bi-polar disorder.”
Tangent
Adidas said Thursday it has placed its partnership with West “under review,” after West’s erratic behavior. West’s Adidas deal is worth $220 million annually and $1.5 billion total, according to Forbes’ estimates. The rapper previously pulled out of a partnership with Gap last month.
Forbes Valuation
We estimate West’s net worth is about $2 billion. However, he will likely lose his billionaire status if his ties with Adidas are severed.
Further Reading
Kanye West Wears ‘White Lives Matter’ Shirt At Yeezy Fashion Show (Forbes)
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/10/09/twitter-deletes-kanye-west-post-about-jewish-people/