Twitter, now X, reinstates Kanye West’s account

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Twitter, now rebranded as X, reinstated the musician Kanye West’s account on Saturday about eight months after suspending him for violating the platform’s rules.

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West, who legally goes by Ye, won’t be able to monetize his account and advertisements won’t appear next to his posts, the company told the Wall Street Journal. As of Saturday he had yet to post via his newly reopened handle, which has more than 31 million followers.

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The platform suspended West after he posted an image of a swastika combined with a Star of David in December.

X’s press office and representatives for West did not immediately respond to request for comment Saturday.

“I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended,” the company’s owner, Elon Musk, wrote to a user at the time.

West’s swastika post was one of several antisemitic comments he made last year, a pattern that cost him business deals and, until Saturday, his Twitter account. He first sparked outrage after appearing in a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt at his Paris Fashion Week show and went on to repeat a series of antisemitic tropes online and in interviews. At one point, he tweeted that he wanted to “death con [sic] 3 on Jewish people.”

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West also lost backers from the fashion world, including Adidas, Gap and Balenciaga, and he was dropped by talent agency CAA and Hollywood financier and producer MRC.

The decision to reinstate West falls in line with Musk’s previously stated philosophy on account suspensions. Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist” and said he did not approve a pause of West’s account that came before his December suspension. He also reinstated former president Donald Trump’s Twitter account last year, although Trump has yet to post on the platform since then.