Over the weekend, Rapper Kanye West, who is now known as X, had his Twitter account reinstated after an eight-month suspension from the social media platform owned by Elon Musk. This suspension was imposed due to his posting of an image that included a swastika, which was one of many controversial remarks made by West in the past year.
Kanye West’s Twitter account was reinstated over the weekend after being suspended by Twitter for incitement of violence against the rule, eight months ago.
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP
Key Facts
Big Number
According to a saved version of Twitter, West had 32.2 million followers at the time his account was suspended. Currently, he has 31.6 million as of Sunday.
Key Background
West was suspended in December, just two weeks after he had brought Musk back to the social media platform in November, along with former President Donald Trump. West’s tweet, which violated the company’s rules, was removed, leading to the suspension of his account. When Musk purchased the social media company last fall, he promised to maintain a free-speech environment and stated that he would only intervene with users’ comments to comply with local laws. As a result, he lifted suspensions on various individuals. However, it wasn’t just West’s tweets that caused controversy. The rapper has faced criticism throughout the past year for his antisemitism. Several brands, including Adidas, decided to sever ties with him after he made a series of racist and antisemitic comments last fall. Foot Locker, Gap, Balenciaga, Studio MRC, and CAA also distanced themselves from West due to his problematic remarks. Adidas, in particular, was a significant loss for West as the sportswear company had been distributing his Yeezy brand since 2013 and played a major role in his wealth.
Tangent
According to reports, Adidas was unable to meet all of its demands due to the extremely high demand for the shoes. Despite facing challenges after losing a major partnership, the company managed to generate approximately $565 million in revenue from West’s footwear, which received around 4 million orders. Earlier this year, Adidas earned over $500 million in sales by selling West’s unsold Yeezy shoes, which were part of the company’s remaining inventory. Last week, the Financial Times published an article stating this information.
Forbes Valuation
In October, when Adidas ended their partnership with him, the rapper West experienced a significant loss of approximately $1.5 billion from his estimated fortune of $2 billion. Consequently, he was removed from Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires. As of now, our estimation suggests that West’s net worth is around $400 million.