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Perhaps in a sign of magnanimity as his newly rebranded X social media platform continues to flourish, or in what simply amounts to one more of his characteristically impulsive moves, Elon Musk has finally unbanned the account of the controversial rapper Kanye West (Ye).
As a refresher, Elon Musk had suspended Ye’s X account back in December of 2022, flagging “incitement to violence” as the precursor for the strict disciplinary action. The CEO of Tesla had taken pains to point out that the ban was not prompted by Ye’s dissemination of a few pictures that highlighted Elon Musk’s increased girth and corpulence.
Bear in mind that Musk has repeatedly noted X’s new policy of allowing freedom of speech but not freedom of reach to controversial Xeets/tweets.
Of course, even before his X account was banned, Ye’s online persona had taken a definitive controversial turn, given his antisemitic rhetoric and ardent support of Donald Trump. Back in October, Adidas ended its $1.5 billion Yeezy deal with Ye. The deal had earned Ye around $500 million in royalty payments and marketing fees over the four years through 2020. The company also ended the production of Yeezy-branded goods with immediate effect. Moreover, Gap and Foot Locker also abandoned their association with Ye.
Toward the end of 2022, Ye’s media-related ambitions also suffered a substantial setback when Parler and Kanye West “mutually agreed” to call off the proposed acquisition. Parler had entered into an “agreement in principle” in October 2022 to sell the company to Ye.
𝕏 monthly users reach new high in 2023 pic.twitter.com/trqLGBEvvA
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2023
Meanwhile, Elon Musk announced recently that the monthly users of X reached a new high in 2023 of over 541 million users. The CEO of Tesla appeared quite jubilant at this development, particularly as it occurred after the removal of “a vast number of bots.” For reference, X’s active monthly users in 2022 averaged just 368 million.
Elon Musk says he will execute on his 22-year plan to make X the most valuable financial institution in the world. pic.twitter.com/JEYuCkIJjB
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) July 30, 2023
As we reported last week, Elon Musk has now rebranded Twitter as X, which marks a significant step toward his overarching goal of developing an “everything app” on the pattern of Tencent’s WeChat. In a recent interview, the world’s richest person declared that he is working on a 22-year-old plan to transform X into the most valuable financial institution in the world.
