Kanye West deletes X account and Instagram posts after Swift, antisemitic rants
“If its [sic] about the culture … why are we letting Taylor Swift be seen on TV singing a song about taking a black man down and accusing of things that can take a black man down for life,” The Independent reported Ye wrote.
Ye’s verified Instagram account still exists, but all posts have been deleted from that platform and the feed is blank.
Taylor Swift, at the Super Bowl, was one of the recent targets of Ye’s rants.Credit: Getty Images
Ye had also attracted criticism for a Super Bowl advertisement for a site selling swastika shirts, hosted by Shopify Inc.
The musician and designer ran a commercial telling people to “go to yeezy.com” during the National Football League’s championship – a sought-after slot renowned for its massive audience – according to The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets.
A screenshot of Ye’s Instagram account.Credit: X
That advertised website featured a single item for sale on Monday: a white shirt with a black Nazi swastika in its centre, under the product name HH-01. The site’s source code and privacy policy show it was hosted by Shopify.
Shopify and yeezy.com did not reply to emailed requests for comment. Overnight, the site was taken down.
“All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform,” Shopify said in a statement on Wednesday morning. “This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms so we removed them from Shopify.”
Shopify loosened its acceptable use rules last year. The policy still says users can’t do anything illegal when conducting business, but the company removed a clause banning “hateful content”.
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In 2022, German sports company Adidas ended a commercial partnership with Ye following comments and actions, including antisemitic posts, that it called “unacceptable, hateful and dangerous”.
Selling goods sporting a swastika is illegal in Germany and other countries. Some of those countries appeared on the yeezy.com checkout page, but it was unclear if the site shipped to those places.
Canada-based Shopify also hosts a store that sells Holocaust denial merchandise, Bloomberg reported in November. Its executives have written in favour of free speech and have recently shared concerns about rising antisemitism.
Bloomberg
