Regrettably, Twitter has restored Kanye West’s account after an 8-month ban

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‘X’, the social media website formerly known as Twitter, reinstated Kanye West’s account over the weekend, with Elon Musk sharing a tweet (or whatever they're called now) declaring that “Something special coming soon”, in a suspect coincidence.

West was banished from the Twitter app following an offensive episode of his antisemitic ranting . On December 1, 2022, West shared an image of a Swastika interlinked with a Star of David, a mere few hours after praising Hitler in a deranged interview with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones for his Infowars podcast .

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In that same explosive batch of tweets , West also accused his ex-wife Kim Kardashian of an affair with a basketball player, and published a mocking photo of X-corp / Twitter owner Elon Musk. When asked to “fix” Kanye, the tech billionaire stated “I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.” Shortly after, Musk tweeted “FAFO” , an acronym for ‘fuck around, find out’.

It appears Musk is going back on his word, with the only “finding out” Kanye had to endure being an eight month ban. Musk's declaration that “something special is coming soon” could be seen as a warning, an expression of slightly twisted excitement, or related to something else entirely.

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Many users were dissatisfied with Musk’s handling of West’s Twitter account, arguing that he should have been suspended long before he had the chance to make those comments on December 1.

As a self proclaimed “free speech absolutist”, the tech billionaire has been criticised for turning a blind-eye to discriminatory posts on his platform and recently came under fire for conservative news outlet The Daily Wire to post the entirety of an anti-trans documentary during the early days of Pride month, which led to two departures from workers at the top of the Twitter moderation and safety team.

Kanye's account has not yet posted anything since its ban was lifted.

Community Security Trust (CST) is a charity that supports British Jews who have faced antisemitism. For anti-semitic incidents you can call CST on 0800 032 3263 or report online.

Tiffanie Ibe is Mixmag’s Digital Intern, follow her on Instagram