WASHINGTON: X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, has reinstated rapper and designer Kanye West around eight months after his account was suspended, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

Last fall, West posted an image that appeared to show a swastika interlaced with a Star of David, and tycoon Elon Musk suspended the artist from the platform, which he had bought weeks earlier.

Musk at the time labelled West’s post as an “incitement to violence.” X’s press office did not immediately respond to a query about West’s account.

By late evening, West had yet to post anything new.

West, who now goes professionally as Ye, assured the platform he would not use his account to share antisemitic content or use harmful language, the Journal said.

Anti-Semitic remarks by West last year cost him heavily in lost business deals. Adidas cut ties with him after a nearly decade-long partnership, abandoning his Yeezy-branded sneakers.

In May, the German company said the end of its highly successful collaboration with West hit sales by about 400 million euros (US$441 million) in the first quarter of the year. Gap and Balenciaga also cut ties with the rapper and designer.

Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, he has fired thousands of employees and cut moderation of content.

In December, he reinstated former president Donald Trump’s Twitter account although Trump has yet to return to the platform.

Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2023