Twitter suspends rapper Kanye's account, again

Twitter Inc on Friday suspended Kanye West's account again, just two months after it was reinstated after its owner Elon Musk said he had violated the platform's rules prohibiting incitement to violence.

Musk, who calls himself a free speech absolutist, had welcomed the return of the rapper, now known as Ye (above), to the platform in October.

"I tried my best. Despite that, he again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended," Musk tweeted late on Thursday.

West's account was suspended within an hour of Musk's post, made in a reply to a Twitter user who had said "Elon Fix Kanye Please". Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Before suspending Ye's account, which had over 30 million followers, Twitter had restricted one of his tweets. Reuters could not independently verify the contents of the post.

The social media platform restored the rapper's account before the completion of its US$44 billion takeover by Musk. Musk later clarified that he had had no role in bringing Ye back on Twitter.

Ye on Thursday tweeted a photo of Hollywood mogul Ari Emanuel spraying water at the back of Musk's head with a hose. He captioned the picture "Let's always remember this as my final tweet #ye24", before the account was suspended.

Musk responded that Ye's account was suspended for incitement to violence, and not for posting "an unflattering pic of me being hosed by Ari".

In November, Twitter reinstated some controversial accounts that had been banned or suspended, including the satirical website Babylon Bee and comedian Kathy Griffin.

Musk also decided to reinstate former US president Donald Trump's account after a majority of Twitter users voted in favour in a poll to bring back Trump.

- Reuters