Elon Musk joked that he wanted to “punch” Kanye West after the rapper posted an image of a swastika on Twitter.
Mr Musk was asked about his decision to suspend West for inciting violence during a Twitter Space live event on Saturday.
“I personally wanted to punch Kanye, so that was definitely inciting me to violence,” he said.
Mr Musk had celebrated Mr West’s return to Twitter after personally reinstating the 45-year-old’s suspended account two weeks earlier.
West tweeted a swastika inside a Star of David on Friday, before praising Adolf Hitler in an appearance on rightwing conspiracist Alex Jones’ Infowars programme.
Mr Musk said he had tried to persuade West not to post antisemitic content to the platform.
He said it was his decision to suspend West, “because at some point you have to say what is incitement to violence because it is against the law in the US”.
“Posting swastikas in what obviously is not a good way is an incitement to violence.”
West has said he is running for president in the 2024 election. He has been shunned by commercial partners such as Adidas and Balenciaga since.
