Paul Stanley of Kiss vs Kanye West: “Mental illness does not excuse anti-Semitism”

Instagram and Twitter have restricted the accounts of American rapper Kanye West, also known as “Yeah“, after he posted comments denounced as anti-Semitic.

A Twitter spokeswoman told AFP on Sunday that her account had been locked due to a violation of the social network’s rules.

And a spokeswoman for Meta, the parent company of Instagram, told AFP that the group had deleted content – without wanting to specify which – appearing on the account of Yes for violating its rules.

Instagram has also restricted his account, which may involve preventing him from posting, writing comments or sending private messages, according to the same source.

Kanye West, who is black, has been causing a stir on social media since he wore a t-shirt proclaiming “White Lives Matter” during Paris Fashion Week.

This is a diversion of the famous slogan “Black Lives Matter” (“Black lives matter”), emblematic of the anti-racist demonstrations of the summer of 2020 in the United States, and a spade for the attention of the eponymous movement.

On Instagram, Yes45, posted screenshots of conversations with rapper Diddy on Friday, who criticized the t-shirt and its message.

“I will use you as an example to show Jewish people who told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me,” Kanye West wrote. The publication has been deleted but copies are still visible on the internet.

Then on Twitter, he said he was going to attack Jews in a post that is no longer accessible, the social network indicating that it broke its rules.

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) accused Ye of promoting “Jew-hatred”.

“Kanye West should find a way to get his point across without resorting to anti-Semitism,” she said.

Accustomed to controversies, Yeswho suffers from bipolar disorder, was previously banned from Instagram posts for 24 hours in March, amid an acrimonious divorce from reality star Kim Kardashian.

The rapper is also on the verge of breaking with the Adidas brand, which wants to “reassess” its collaboration with the artist.

On his side, Paul Stanley of Kisswho is Jewish, also took to Twitter to comment on Kanye West’s posts: “Mental illness IS a disease but should NEVER be used to downplay the danger of hate speech, anti-Semitism and violence. against religions or ethnicities. We have found ways over the centuries to rationalize this behavior and have seen the atrocities that have followed. SPEAK UP!”

This message was published after Kanye tweeted a rather ambivalent post in which he expects to be threatened, even to have to threaten the Jewish community himself: “I’m a little sleepy tonight, but when I wake up , I will have to step up” and “You played with me and tried to blackmail everyone who opposes your program.” Kanye West has therefore been banned from Twitter for these messages.