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August 12, 2021 12:05 pm

Jewish Group Presses Social Media Giants on Return of British Rapper Wiley to Platforms After Antisemitic Rant

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    avatar by Shiryn Ghermezian

    Rapper Wiley arrives for the Brit Awards, at the O2 Arena in London, Britain, Feb. 22, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Neil Hall.

    Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) called on social media companies on Sunday to address the return of British rapper Wiley back on their platforms after his antisemitic rant last year.

    In July 2020, the rap artist, who real name is Richard Kylea Cowie, took to the three social media platforms and posted a series of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel comments over the course of a few days. He claimed that Jews cheated him and called them “snakes;” told “black people” to go to “war” with Jews; and tweeted that Jews should “hold some corn,” a slang expression meaning that they should be shot, adding, “Jewish community you deserve it.”

    The rapper, who denied being racist and antisemitic, additionally promoted the false conspiracy theory that Jews were responsible for the slave trade.

    After pro-Israel supporters engaged in a 48-hour boycott of Twitter and Instagram, and following CAA’s projection of antisemitic tweets onto the building of Twitter’s London headquarters, Wiley was banned by Twitter, Facebook (which owns Instagram), Google (which owns YouTube) and TikTok. He later apologized for his comments.

    Now, CAA said, “it appears that all is forgiven as Wiley is once again active on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube in what is just the latest example of social media platforms not taking antisemitism seriously.”

    Wiley opened a new Twitter account in April. On June 26, the rapper tweeted: “In all my years on earth I realized  everyone wants you to care about their stuff like Holocaust etc but not one of them give a f*** about the enslavement and f***ery of black people so it’s hard for me to care for them knowing they don’t care for us #YaGetIt #JusSayin.” The tweet has since been deleted.

    CAA said that Twitter partnered with the watchdog group to monitor anti-Jewish racism on its platform and “promised regular meetings, only to cease those meetings and ignore offers of antisemitism training after we began alerting the company to the inconsistent application of its policies by personnel.”

    “One year after his antisemitic social media rampage, why on earth is Wiley back on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube?” a CAA spokesperson asked. “Not only have social media companies abjectly failed to take antisemitism on their platforms seriously, as evidenced by our recent report and other findings, but to permit Wiley back on their networks despite their pledges barely a year ago adds insult to injury. They have no shame.”

    Wiley was due to perform at the New World Fest music festival in the United Kingdom last weekend, but following outrage about his scheduled performance he did not show up for the concert, the Jewish News reported.

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