Another day, another Kanye West story. The rapper turned online troll has been ceaselessly making headlines in recent months because he cannot stop overreacting to his ex-wife’s new relationship with Pete Davidson. Perhaps we’ll all hear less about it now though, because Ye has finally been banned from Instagram for violating its policies — specifically for lobbing hate speech at Trevor Noah.
On a recent episode of The Daily Show, Noah laid out an important argument. The host explained how the ridiculous saga of Kim, Pete, and Ye is an example of a tabloid story that has grown into something bigger, because we’re all watching a man harass his ex-wife and make violent threats against her current partner on a public stage. And if Kim Kardashian of all people can’t get her ex to stop harassing her, what kind of message is that sending? It speaks to the insidiousness of domestic abuse, and the way we don’t protect women in these situations. Noah even brought up how his mother was doubted and gaslit when she tried to get out of her abusive relationship, and was ultimately shot in the head by his step father.
Ye couldn’t take Noah’s earnest PSA for what it was though, and in turn did what he’s done when criticized by anyone in the last few weeks: he went on an internet revenge rampage. Just off the heels of saying that he was going to have comedian D.L. Hughley “hurt,” and making myriad threats to Pete Davidson, Ye posted a photo of Trevor’s wikipedia page to his Instagram with a caption calling him the racial slur, “k**n,” a derogatory term used to describe Black people who work against Black causes. Luckily it was the last straw and he has since been banned from the platform for 24 hours, with his content also having been deleted.
Variety reported that a Meta spokesperson confirmed that “the platform has deleted content posted by West for violating their policies on hate speech, bullying and harassment. As a result, West has been restricted from posting, commenting and sending DMs for a 24-hour period. Meta’s policy is to restrict accounts that have repeatedly violated these rules and the platform will take additional measures if further violations are made.” Ye’s team has not yet publicly responded to the ban. But perhaps that’s the best outcome here — for Kanye West to please, for the love of whatever god he believes in, stop talking. And posting, too.
