Allaying apprehensions that millionaire Elon Musk, who has often called himself a free speech absolutist, will turn Twitter into a den of hate speech, the new boss of the micro-blogging site allowed the suspension of American rapper Kanye West.
Responding to a Twitter user’s query on Kanye who goes by the name Ye now Musk said, “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”
West’s account was suspended after he posted a series of incoherent tweets – one of which appeared to show a symbol combining a swastika and a Jewish star. West had “violated our rule against incitement to violence”, Musk tweeted.
Twitter had restored the account of the rapper, before the completion of the social media platform’s $44 billion takeover by Musk. However, Musk later clarified that he had no role in unblocking Kanye’s account.
Earlier Musk had announced a general amnesty for suspended Twitter accounts in a move that made people apprehensive about hate speech being given a free rein on the micro-blogging site based on the result of opinion poll.
Ever since Musk took over, Twitter has restored many suspended accounts of controversial figures like Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, former US President Donald Trump, comedian Kathy Griffin among others.
In India, there has been a huge demand for unblocking of actress Kangana Ranaut’s Twitter account.
In May 2021, Kangana’s Twitter account was ‘permanently suspended for repeated violation of Twitter rules’. The actor had violated the Hateful Conduct policy and Abusive Behaviour policy of Twitter. She had alleged a racist bias and told ANI, “Twitter has only proved my point they’re Americans and by birth, a white person feels entitled to enslave a brown person, they want to tell you what to think, speak or do. I have many platforms I can use to raise my voice, including my own art in the form of cinema.”
