Musk’s one-on-one with Kanye signals naïveté moderating Twitter hate speech
Enlarge (credit: Kanye: Edward Berthelot, Musk: Rogan podcast, Mashup: Aurich)
Self-described free speech absolutist Elon Musk couldn't resist warmly welcoming Kanye West back to Twitter after the rapper had his Instagram account locked over the weekend for posting a caption that echoed dangerous Nazi propaganda by suggesting that Jewish people today have too much power. On Saturday, Musk replied to a tweet from West criticizing Mark Zuckerberg for the rapper's Instagram ban, with Musk saying to Kanye, "Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!"
A short time later, West got his account locked on Twitter, too, this time for escalating his antisemitic content. In another tweet, West coldly invoked memories of the Holocaust by suggesting that he would go death con 3 on Jewish people." Commentators since have speculated whether West intended to tweet death con 3" or Defcon 3," a military term indicating a high level of defense readiness that the US has only ever reached twice in history. Both meanings, Vanity Fair reported, raised alarm bells, though. While it was not clear if he'd meant to write Defcon,' or actually meant death con,' neither would be great, given the persecution that Jews have historically faced, including that one period in which more than 6 million of them were wiped off the face of the earth," Vanity Fair's analysis read.
Musk, like many Republicans, opposes broad social media censorship of hate speech, which he suggests conflicts with First Amendment protections. As controversy swirled, Musk stuck by West, who now goes by Ye and has publicly spoken about his bipolar disorder and his experiences tweeting through manic episodes. On Monday, Musk tweeted, Talked to Ye today & expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart."