Following the rebranding of X, Elon Musk reactivates Kanye West's Twitter account.

 

 

Kanye West's account on X, formerly known as Twitter, has been reactivated on the social networking site. According to the Wall Street Journal, West will not be able to monetize his account, and no advertising would display next to his postings.

In December, the musician's account was banned for breaking the platform's guidelines on promoting violence. The ban came when West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, made many anti-Semitic statements, including a warning to "go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE." Multiple commercial relationships, including ties with Adidas and premium fashion label Balenciaga, fell apart as a result of those words.

Although CNN was unable to tell which post was the final straw at the time, West had tweeted an altered picture of the Star of David with a swastika inside the day before his suspension.

 Twitter has long been plagued by moderation concerns, with CEO Elon Musk defining himself as a "free speech absolutist." After agreeing to purchase the firm in October, he stated that Twitter will "be very reluctant to delete things" and "be very cautious with permanent bans."

However, following West's suspension, Musk wrote, "I tried my best. Despite this, he broke our rule against encouragement to violence once more."

In April, Twitter's safety team unveiled a new content enforcement approach dubbed "Freedom of Speech, Not Reach," with the goal of "restricting the reach of Tweets that violate our policies by making the content less discoverable."

 This strategy requires the team to "proactively prevent ads from appearing adjacent to content" that has been classified as violative.

 

The safety team said earlier this month that labelled tweets "receive 81% less reach or impressions" than non-restricted tweets, and that "more than 99.99% of Tweet impressions are from... content that does not violate our rules."

The Violent Speech Policy on Twitter forbids promoting and praising violence, wishing harm on others, and threatening others. It does, however, offer several exclusions, such as "figures of speech, satire, or artistic expression when the context is expressing a viewpoint rather than instigating actionable violence or harm."

"We make sure to evaluate and understand the context behind the conversation before taking action," the policy adds, adding that if a user thinks their account was suspended in error, they may file an appeal.

It's unclear whether West filed an appeal or whether something else caused his account to be reactivated. The musician has yet to make an appearance on the site. CNN contacted Twitter and a representative for West but received no response.