Kanye West is currently selling T-shirts with swastikas on his website, following off a chaotic, hate-filled week for the musician that included messages on his X account.
The website received fresh promotion. Sunday, West, who changed his name to Ye, purchased a local TV ad during the Super Bowl that appeared to show him sitting at a dentist’s office while shooting a 30-second clip on an iPhone to direct visitors to his Yeezy website.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, despite airing during the Super Bowl, it was not a national ad on Fox and was only seen by viewers in a select regions. Fox, which did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment, does not have complete control over the advertising that appear on its stations.
Shopify, the online company that handles orders for the $20 T-shirts, did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
For the past few days, West has been spewing virulently antisemitic, homophobic, and misogynistic hate speech to his almost 32 million followers via his X account. Celebrities, Jewish groups, anti-hate organizations, and other X accounts had urged with Elon Musk’s X platform to intervene.
Some of West’s X posts were restricted in their visibility, including those with homophobic remarks and another inciting for violence against Jews. A remark appended to a few posts stated. “This post may violate X’s rules against hateful conduct,” according to which the message “can’t be replied to, shared or liked.”
On Monday, the Anti-Defamation League harshly attacked West.
“Hitler selected the swastika as the Nazis’ principal insignia. It energized his adherents in the twentieth century and continues to threaten and engender fear in those targeted by antisemitism and white supremacy,” according to an ADL statement released on X. “There’s no excuse for this kind of behavior.”
On Sunday evening, West appeared to deactivate his own account. “I’m signing out of Twitter. “I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent; it has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board,” he wrote.
In response to a user who complained that West was publishing “actual porn,” Musk commented, “Given what he has posted, his account is officially labeled as NSFW. You shouldn’t be seeing that anymore. (NSFW means “not safe for work.”)
West was previously barred from Twitter in 2022 for what Musk described as “incitement to violence.” It was revived in July 2023.
West revealed on a podcast last week that he was previously misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder but actually has autism. West stated that the diagnosis has helped him better understand himself.West’s earlier provocative comments caused several business agreements to collapse, including those with Gap and Adidas. In 2022, multiple people close to the artist told CNN that he has always been attracted by Hitler and previously intended to name an album after the former Nazi leader.
