Posting from an iPhone on Sunday, the artist formerly known
as Kanye West first tested that he was still unblocked — his account had been
temporarily suspended and restored at the end of October, which Musk said was
not his decision — before following up with “Shalom”.
Ye's earlier suspension had been due to an antisemitic
tweet. The hip hop artist last month agreed to buy social media platform
Parler, embraced by conservatives as an alternative to Twitter.
Musk responded positively to Ye's initial tweet, tweeting “Don't kill what ye hate, Save what ye love.”Shalom : )
— ye (@kanyewest) November 20, 2022
Twitter's new leader, who's also chief executive officer of
Tesla and SpaceX, spent the weekend polling his followers on the platform
whether to restore the access of Donald Trump, the former US president who was
permanently suspended following the Jan. 6 breaching of the US capitol. Some 52
percent responded in the affirmative and Trump is now clear to return — though
he's responded saying that he'll stick to his own social network, Truth Social.
Musk posted and deleted a tweet that depicted Twitter as a
drug that Trump will be sorely tempted to return to. The billionaire Twitter
owner's courtship of the network's controversial figures — beside himself —
threatens to further alienate advertisers, who have been wary about associating
their brands with the service in recent times.
Twitter has been setting new highs for user numbers under
Musk's leadership, which has attracted attention for abrupt job cuts,
equivocation on product changes and an ultimatum to employees to either stay
for a new “hardcore” work culture or leave.