Elon Musk finally responds to X users calling for Kanye West's account to be removed

It's been a controversial time on X since Elon Musk bought Twitter back in October 2022 and rebranded the social media platform in his own vision.

As well as introducing a paid subscription cost and rolling out Community Notes, Musk has been accused of letting people say what they want.

There's been something of a mass exodus, with celebrities ranging from Stephen King to Mark Hamill heading to Bluesky. One person who has firmly remained on X in Kanye West, and following a run of recent outbursts, Musk has responded to calls to ban the rapper.

West grabbed the attention of the Xverse when his account went on an antisemitic rant and then thanked Musk, writing, "I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent."

Among the comments made, West posted statements saying, "I love Hitler" and "I'm a Nazi," with one saying, "I'm never apologising for my Jewish comments."

There was a massive backlash, with Friends star David Schwimmer calling for West to be banned from X.

Schwimmer wrote: "This is so 2022. We can't stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate filled, ignorant bile… but we CAN stop giving him a megaphone, Mr. Musk.

"Kanye West has 32.7 million followers on your platform, X. That's twice as many people than the number of Jews in existence.

"His sick hate speech results in REAL LIFE violence against Jews.

"I don't know what's worse, the fact that he identifies as a Nazi (which implies he wants to exterminate ALL marginalized communities including his own) or the fact that there is not sufficient OUTRAGE to remove and ban him from all social media at this point."

Saying that 'silence is complicity' Schwimmer was joined by The Campaign Against Antisemitism in asking for West to be de-platformed.

Speaking out about the issue, Musk has since confirmed that West will be censored. The X owner wrote: "Given what he has posted, his account is now classified as NSFW. You should not be seeing that anymore."

West's X account was slapped with a sensitive content warning, but in the aftermath, he seems to have deleted it. After continuing to post during the Super Bowl, West wrote: "I'm logging out of Twitter. I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent. It has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board. It was like an Ayahuasca trip. Love all of you who gave me your energy and attention. To we connect again. Good afternoon and good night."

While posting during the Super Bowl, West went on a rant about Taylor Swift, who was there to support her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, as he played for the Kansas City Chiefs. In another particularly charged rant, West took aim at Kendrick Lamar and posted: "KENDRICK IS BEING USED BY THESE WHITE PEOPLE AND JEWS AND SO AM I."

West had referred to his posts as a 'social experiment', adding, that it was "my greatest performance art piece thus far."

Whatever the intention was, West looks like he's gone from X for the foreseeable future.