Kanye West performing at South by Southwest on March 21, 2009 in Austin, Texas. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, is receiving criticism for reactivating Kanye West’s account on Saturday, roughly eight months after it was suspended following his series of antisemitic comments online and in media interviews.

“Absolutely sickening that antisemite Kanye West was unsuspended from Twitter/X and given a gold verification check mark. He’s done absolutely nothing to make amends,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted on Saturday night. “I believe in counsel culture not cancel culture — but this approach only works when the offender demonstrates some measure of contrition and an openness to learn. We’ve seen zero from Kanye.”

The social media company, owned by Elon Musk, reactivated the account of the rapper and entrepreneur, who legally changed his name to Ye, “after receiving reassurance that he wouldn’t use the platform to share antisemitic or otherwise harmful language,” an anonymous source told The Wall Street Journal. His account now has a gold check mark, which indicates that its a business account that is typically able to monetize on the platform, but Twitter told The Wall Street Journal that Ye’s account will not be eligible for monetization and ads won’t appear next to his posts. The fashion designer has not posted anything new since his tweets in 2022.

Greenblatt highlighted the rise in antisemites, extremists and white supremacists on Twitter and asked the social media giant: “Why is anti-Jewish hate excused? overlooked? rationalized?”

The non-profit organization Creative Community for Peace, which aims to counter antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments in the entertainment industry, called Twitter’s decision to reinstate Ye’s account “absolutely shameful.”

The Flashing Lights singer had his Twitter account suspended in December 2022 for violating the platform’s rules for inciting violence. The move came after he posted threats of violence against the Jewish community, writing in a post that he wanted to “Go death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE,” and uploaded an image of the Star of David with a swastika inside of it. His social media posts also resulted in him losing brand partnerships with Adidas, the fashion house Balenciaga, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Vogue, GAP, Peloton and others.

During that same time period Ye trafficked in antisemitic conspiracy theories and stereotypes during an interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and said multiple times during a three-hour appearance on the talk show Infowars, hosted by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, that he admired Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and questioned facts about the Holocaust.

West had 32.2 million Twitter followers when his account was suspended, according to an archived version of Twitter cited by Forbes magazine. As of Monday, he has 31.6 million followers on the platform.