It looks like Kanye West is back on Twitter, after he was previously suspended for around eight months. He was thrown off the platform last December, after he Tweeted an image of a swastika inside of a Star of David. The rapper's account now has a gold check, indicating that Ye is an official business. "I tried my best," Elon Musk wrote before suspending Kanye. "Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended."
According to Twitter, "Any organization that purchases a subscription to Verified Organizations will receive a gold checkmark and square avatar if they are a business or non-profit, or a grey checkmark and square avatar if they are a governmental or multilateral organization." The New York Times' Ryan Mac says Kanye's account has a gold check because the platform views Ye as his "overall brand." He explains, “It’s unclear if he will run ads, but as a gold checkmark verified organization, he has the ability to do so.”
Kanye West's Twitter
The swastika photo was far from the first time Kanye got carried away on Twitter. In October of last year, he called for "death con [sic] 3 on Jewish people," leading his account to be banned. His antisemitic Tweets also caused the artist to lose his partnership with the company Adidas. At the time, they said they don't "tolerate anti-Semitism and any other sort of hate speech." His Twitter account was reinstated the following month.
Kanye's 2024 presidential campaign has also been a topic of discussion lately, as it was recently reported that the FBI may be looking into his campaign manager. The manager, Milo Yiannopoulos, is a foreign national, which means he's forbidden from formally working on a campaign. “You cannot take any services from a foreign national. It’s a criminal violation, not civil- a criminal violation! It’s a felony, it’s not a minor offense," attorney Bruce Fein told Radar Online. "This is not an obscure provision in the election law.”