Twitter CEO Elon Musk didn’t mince words when asked about his personal reaction to Kanye West’s latest anti-Semitic post on the social network.
West was suspended from Twitter last week for violating the company’s “incitement to violence” policy. The suspension comes after West posted a disturbing photo of a swastika inside a Star of David as part of a series of tweets.
“Personally, I wanted to punch Kanye, so it made me violent. It’s not cool,” Musk said during the Q&A In “Twitter Spaces”. on Saturday.
Musk commented on West’s suspension in response to a participant’s question about how Twitter balances “free speech” on the platform with its content moderation practices. Under the leadership of the billionaire, Twitter has unblocked thousands of accounts, including those of former President Donald Trump.
Musk, a self-proclaimed “absolutist” of free speech, also explained why he suspended Ye’s account.
“It was my decision because at a certain point you have to say, what is incitement to violence? Because it is against US law. “You can’t create a ‘let’s kill someone’ club,” Musk said.
“I think placing swastikas in a bad way is an incitement to violence,” he added.
Twitter’s CEO said context is another key factor in determining whether a post violates company policy. While West’s tweets were found to be incitement to violence, Musk argued that photos of Nazis in a post about World War II may not violate the guidelines.
West posted the offending image hours after conspiracy theorist Alex Jones made a strange appearance on InfoWars.
Wearing a full-face hood, West performed alongside white supremacist Nick Fuentes and repeatedly paid tribute to the Nazis and Adolf Hitler.
West has been suspended by Twitter twice in the past few months for espousing anti-Semitic views.
In October — before Musk took over the company — West was suspended after tweeting about a “death plot against the Jewish people.” Musk reinstated the account — only to later execute the suspension.
These explosions cost West billionaire status, as well as lucrative deals with Adidas and Gap.
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