Kanye West’s Instagram account has been suspended once again, four days after he returned to the platform.
Instagram’s parent company, Meta, confirmed West’s ban to Billboard yesterday (October 31), citing an unspecified violation of the platform’s policies. The spokesperson did not identify which specific posts led to West’s most recent suspension, but said Instagram was forced to remove content from the rapper’s feed, as well as place restrictions on his ability to comment, post and send direct messages.
Meta also revealed that West’s recent violation incurred a 30-day suspension, a mere weeks after his account was restricted following antisemitic posts in early October. Prior to his ban on Sunday (October 30), West uploaded a graphic image of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was tortured and lynched in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman.
West accompanied that post with images of businessman Ari Emanuel, who recently wrote in a Financial Times op-ed that West’s business partners should stop working with him. The rapper called on Emanuel to “find a place for the Donda Academy kids to go to school”, following the closure of the West-owned academy – and its basketball team – after his antisemitic remarks.
Elsewhere in the post – which is still up on West’s Instagram account – he commented on the ramifications of his statements, writing that “[this is] what modern post social media #Blackmirror warfare looks like.” The rapper likened to the backlash he’s received to “economic lynching” and “digital lynching”, before declaring “everyone in the world! Take me as an example of what will happen if you show any frustration.”
According to Rolling Stone, after receiving the 30-day suspension from Instagram, West then posted on Parler, the right-leaning social media site that touts itself as an “uncancelable free speech platform”. Its parent company said it intended to sell Parler to Ye last month.
On Parler, West claimed his Instagram ban was enforced after he shared a screenshot of a text exchange with a person he said was record executive Russell Simmons. Ye posted that screenshot – which is not available on his Instagram account – to Parler.
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After Simmons suggested West consider coming abroad to rebuild his empire, West replied, “I’m staying in America. I gotta get the Jewish business people to make the contracts fair. Or die trying.” The rapper accompanied that Parler post with the caption: “Got kicked off instagram for 30 days for telling Russell Simmons that I was going to make ‘you know who’ have better contracts and business practices. Jesus is king.”
West’s most recent Instagram ban – he was also banned for 24 hours in March – came two days after he attempted to apologise for similarly offensive remarks regarding George Floyd, who he falsely claimed had died from fentanyl. “I want to apologise [for] hurting [Floyd’s family],” West said of his statements, “Because right now… I know how it feels to have a knee on my neck.”