Kanye West, the rapper that turned heads by standing beside Donald Trump when other rappers wouldn’t, was temporarily banned from Instagram on Wednesday in a move described as censorship by some of his fans. Others have suggested that West move to another platform that is less censorious.
Kanye West, now known as Ye, has been banned from Instagram for at least for the next 24 hours. The official reason was “violating the service’s policies on hate speech, bullying and harassment” as reported by USA Today and other media outlets. However, some are skeptical of Instagram’s statement, and instead have described the move as “censorship.”
Kanye West has professed his admiration for Donald Trump on multiple occasions, meeting with him in person several times. He visited the President-elect at the Trump Towers in 2016 to talk about “multicultural issues.” Then in 2018, West tweeted, “You don’t have to agree with Trump but the mob can’t make me not love him. We are both dragon energy. He is my brother.” West visited Trump in the White House with a group of supporters later that year.
It is unclear whether West’s political beliefs contributed to Instagram’s decision to ban him. It is notable that Trump himself has been banned off of Instagram, and many other social media platforms. In return, Trump launched his own platform, Truth Social.
