Elon Musk Welcomes Kanye West Back to Twitter

2 minute read

American musician Ye has returned to Twitter after a two-week hiatus from the social network, and new owner Elon Musk welcomed him back on the platform.

Posting from an iPhone on Sunday, the artist formerly known as Kanye West first tested that he was still unblocked—his account had been temporarily suspended and restored at the end of October, which Musk said was not his decision—before following up with “Shalom : )”. Ye’s earlier suspension had been due to an anti-Semitic tweet. The hip hop artist last month agreed to buy social media platform Parler, embraced by conservatives as an alternative to Twitter.

Read More: Kanye West to Buy Conservative Social Network Parler

Musk responded positively to Ye’s initial tweet, tweeting “Don’t kill what ye hate, Save what ye love.”

Twitter’s new leader, who’s also chief executive officer of Tesla Inc. and SpaceX, spent the weekend polling his followers on the platform whether to restore the access of Donald Trump, the former U.S. president who was permanently suspended following the Jan. 6 breaching of the US capitol. Some 52% responded in the affirmative and Trump is now clear to return—though he’s responded saying that he’ll stick to his own social network, Truth Social.

Read More: Twitter Is Collapsing, and Nothing Can Replace It

Musk’s latest tweet depicts Twitter as a drug that Trump will be sorely tempted to return to. The billionaire Twitter owner’s courtship of the network’s controversial figures—beside himself—threatens to further alienate advertisers, who have been wary about associating their brands with the service in recent times.

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