Trump Hasn't Tweeted Yet, but Kanye West Has

Ye, or Kanye West as he was formally known, was restricted from Twitter in October after posting a slew of anti-Semitic remarks. He tweeted a flurry of messages around Nov. 3 and 4 (including one that said he was taking a verbal fast for a month), then nothing until Sunday, when he tweeted, "Testing Testing Seeing if my Twitter is unblocked." He got a reply from Elon Musk himself: "Don't kill what ye hate. Save what ye love." A few hours later brought one more tweet from Ye: "Shalom : )" NBC News reports that's a Hebrew greeting meaning "peace," and Ynet calls it "a message that appeared to wink at his ongoing antisemitism controversy."

Ye's account was originally locked about six weeks ago after his anti-Semitic posts. In one tweet, which was later removed, he wrote, "I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE." Ye's return coincides with the restoration of a number of previously banned accounts beyond that of former President Trump (who hasn't yet posted a return tweet), including those of satirical site Babylon Bee and Jordan Peterson, and Ynet notes Musk didn't make clear what parameters were followed in making the decisions. Anti-Defamation League’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says that wasn't supposed to be the deal.

Greenblatt on Saturday tweeted that in a Nov. 1 meeting with Musk and others regarding hate speech on Twitter, Musk pledged to put in place a "transparent, clear [account restoration] process that took into consideration the views of civil society." Greenblatt added, "For @elonmusk to allow Donald Trump back on Twitter, ostensibly after a brief poll, shows he is not remotely serious about safeguarding the platform from hate, harassment and misinformation." Musk tweeted in reply, "Hey stop defaming me!" It was "a message widely interpreted as mocking the civil rights organization," per Ynet. (More Kanye West stories.)