Elon Musk says he wanted to punch Kanye West over the rapper’s latest anti-Semitic remarks.
The new head of Twitter was participating in a live Q&A on Twitter Spaces last Saturday (Dec. 3) about the “Twitter Files” story, when one of the hosts asked him about his approach to censorship and free speech, ” right” he was faced with the question. The Jerusalem Post).
Last week, West tweeted an image of a swastika inside a Star of David: a move led by Musk violated the platform’s “anti-incitement to violence” policy. West’s account was suspended on Friday (December 2).
On Thursday (Dec. 1), a US far-right conspiracy theory website Infowars broadcast host Alex Jones’ interview with West in which the latter praised Adolf Hitler and denied that the Holocaust happened and that Hitler killed six million Jews.
“I personally wanted to punch Kanye, so it made me violent,” Musk told a Q&A audience on Saturday.
“I think it’s important for people to know that it was my decision,” he added of Ye’s suspension.
Musk said: “At some point you have to say what incitement to violence is, because it’s against US law.
“Positioning swastikas in a bad way is an incitement to violence.”
He said in the west Infowars interview: “I like Hitler… I don’t want to shock, I like Hitler. The holocaust is not what happened, let’s face the facts, and Hitler has many redeeming qualities.
You later added: “[Hitler] He had a great dress and he was a very good architect…and he didn’t kill six million Jews.
You can watch clips from the interview below.
Kanye ‘Ye’ West: “I like Hitler. … I don’t want to shock, I like Hitler. The holocaust is not something that happened, let’s face the facts, and Hitler has a lot of redeeming qualities. pic.twitter.com/UwCu2ZJfid
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 1, 2022
Kanye “Ye” West on Hitler: “He had really cool clothes and he was a really good architect… and he didn’t kill 6 million Jews.” pic.twitter.com/BP2xrAQURG
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) December 1, 2022
“I tried my best,” Musk wrote in a now-deleted tweet related to the matter. “However, he again violated our incitement to violence rule. The account will be suspended.”
The Infowars The interview, featuring white supremacist and notorious Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, was described by the Republican Jewish Coalition as a “horrifying cesspool of dangerous, bigoted Jew-hatred” (via Newsweek).
According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and many other historical fact-checkers, approximately six million Jews died in Europe during the Holocaust between 1941 and 1945 during World War II.
West referenced the incident in the song “Who Gon Stop Me” from his 2011 album Watch The Throne with Jay-Z. The opening line of the song, provided by West, reads: “It’s like a holocaust, millions of us lost“.
In recent months, the rapper has made various statements that have been criticized as anti-Semitic, including that he is “dying” [sic] about the Jewish people”.
West has repeatedly denied that his remarks were racist, saying for example that he does not believe in the term “anti-Semitism” because he claims it is “not factual”.
However, in an October interview with Piers Morgan, he issued a sort of apology, saying: “I’m sorry for offending you with the ‘death plot’ … I feel like I’ve caused offense and confusion.”
Meanwhile, a petition started to remove West from streaming services like Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music has reached more than 50,000 signatures.