Kanye West Proves There Are Limits to Elon Musk’s Free Speech Pledge

It is 2025 and Kanye West has once more created headlines for the express rants that he posted on X, the social media platform previously often known as Twitter.

Though he has since deleted his account of his personal accord, it has pressured many to query how a lot Elon Musk will intervene throughout future incidents, particularly when he has acknowledged up to now that he’s a “free speech absolutist” who didn’t wish to place any limits on what people might say on his platform.

After his $44 billion offer to buy Twitter, Musk tweeted, “Free speech is the bedrock of functionary democracy” and declared himself a “free speech absolutist.”

In a 2022 tweet, Musk defined that he purchased Twitter “as a result of you will need to the way forward for civilization to have a typical digital city sq., the place a variety of beliefs could be debated in a wholesome method, with out restoring to violence,” including, “There may be at the moment nice hazard that social media will splinter into far proper wing and much left-wing echo chambers that generate extra hate and divide in our society.”

Though he admitted that Twitter “can’t develop into a free-for-all hellscape, the place something could be stated with no penalties,” Musk has come below fireplace for stress-free guidelines on hate speech and creating the “something goes” atmosphere that he as soon as cautioned in opposition to.

Over the previous few weeks, Ye has been ranting and raving on social media, overlaying all the things from Diddy’s arrest to his spouse, Bianca Censori, and their notorious Grammys stunt the place she shed her black coat on the crimson carpet to disclose a sheer gown that left nothing to the creativeness.

“I’ve dominion over my spouse. This ain’t no woke as feminist sh-t,” he tweeted final week. “She’s with a billionaire. Why would she take heed to any of you dumb a– broke broke b-tches. Folks say the crimson carpet look was her resolution. Sure I don’t make her do nothing she doesn’t wish to however she undoubtedly wouldn’t have been capable of do it with out my approval you silly a– woke pawns.”

After a couple of days of antisemitic, misogynistic, and racist rants, Elon Musk labeled Ye’s account “NSFW” after the Yeezy founder began repeatedly posting porn and spamming his followers with undesirable grownup content material.

“Given what he has posted, his account is now labeled as NSFW. You shouldn’t be seeing that anymore,” Musk tweeted in response to a involved consumer.

Nonetheless, many didn’t discover Ye’s pornography as alarming as his personal admission that he identifies as a Nazi.

Ye’s antisemitic tirade continued the Friday earlier than the Tremendous Bowl, when he tweeted, “Any Jewish individual that does enterprise with me must know I don’t like or belief any Jewish particular person,” as per screenshots obtained by TMZ.

After clarifying that he was sober whereas he was tweeting, Ye insisted, “I can say Jew as a lot as I need. I can say Hitler as a lot as I need. Matter [of] reality, I do say it once I need.”

He additionally clearly acknowledged, “I’m a Nazi” in all capital letters at 3:21 AM on Friday, February 7, earlier than happening to promote $20 shirts with a swastikas design on his Yeezy web site. He then determined to take away himself from X, however continues to be lively on Instagram.

Kanye West, who now identifies as Ye, is somebody who likes to toe the road and see how far he can go earlier than the purpose of no return. His Grammys stunt was simply testing the waters. Within the weeks that adopted, he adopted it up by posting grownup content material, figuring out as a Nazi, and even calling Diddy his “twin.” It is unclear what, if something, Ye might achieve from his controversial content material besides notoriety.

Elon Musk desires to maintain X as an area the place anybody can say something with out limits, however amid studies that even he unfollowed Ye earlier than he eliminated his personal account, it’s clear that there’s some “speech” that even the Tesla CEO doesn’t wish to be uncovered to, and, judging by most of the feedback on-line, it’s not likely one thing anybody needed to see. Positive, there’s at all times the block button, however activists will argue that Ye must be prevented from saying it in any respect.

Speech is made to speak, typically with the aim that one or each events can profit from the alternate. There may be nothing entertaining, informative, or academic in what Ye has been posting. It solely signifies a troubling cry for assist that he might sadly by no means obtain.

There’s an outdated saying that goes: “The proper to swing your fist ends on the tip of an individual’s nostril.” At what level do phrases typed on a pc display screen equate to the hurt performed by bodily violence? I haven’t got a solution. I do not assume any of us do. However I hope it is one which Elon Musk is at the least contemplating… if he isn’t too busy taking on the federal government, that’s.