After Kanye West spent the morning targeting his ex-wife Kim Kardashian‘s boyfriend Pete Davidson — as well a slew of other prominent Black comedians, including The Daily Show host Trevor Noah — with back-to-back-to-back Instagram posts, the social media platform restricted his account, Rolling Stone can confirm.
A spokesperson for Meta, Instagram’s parent company, tells Rolling Stone that West’s @kanyewest account was restricted for 24 hours for repeated violation of the platform’s rules on hate speech, bullying and harassment. West won’t be able to post, comment, or send DMs on Instagram for 24 hours. The company also removed content in violation of its policies from West’s account, which included a post containing racial slurs aimed at Noah.
The Meta spokesperson said it the company would consider taking further action if West continues to violate Instagram’s rules. (TMZ was first to report the news.)
Representatives for Kanye West did not immediately respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment.
On Wednesday morning, the rapper — who has used social media to bash Davidson over the last several weeks — shared a 2019 Breitbart article referencing a racy joke from the comedian about having sex with a baby.
“Yet another reason why SKETE gotta stay away from my children,” he wrote. “Oh and nobody noticed that he ain’t show up to SNL Because Mr. I can help you with meds had a mental breakdown after we ran him off the internet.” (Davidson has reportedly been away from Saturday Night Live while filming upcoming horror flick, The Home.)
In that post, he continued: “SKETE you not built for this I already blacked the Super Bowl out on you… Apologize to your family for being in your family.”
In subsequent posts, he claimed that Davidson would get Kardashian “hooked on drugs,” because he’s “in rehab every two months.” West also made fun of Davidson’s Hillary Clinton tattoo, writing “Tramp Stamp Pete the Tramp… here’s the stamp.”
To make matters worst, West posted a screengrab of the violent claymation “Eazy” video depicting Davidson’s decapitated head with flowers growing out of it. His caption? “Ya’ll ready for Coachella ☠️,” he wrote.
The tirade continued as West targeted Noah, as well as D.L. Hughley and Davidson’s SNL castmate, Michael Che, in subsequent posts. West’s ire at Hughley was prompted by a series of recent Twitter jabs from the comedian — including one in which he joked about the Donda 2 rapper’s divorce from Kardashian. “#Kanye do you know how horrible you gotta be to make a #Kardashian date a white man,” Hughley wrote. West responded by posting a photo of Hughley donning a camo jacket and wide-brimmed hat, captioned, “This grown ass man picked this outfit out himself Is he influential or under the influence???”
Despite being restricted on Instagram, West has yet to post to his other social media profiles to respond to the incident. His Twitter account has been inactive since the rapper’s failed presidential bid in 2020.
Additional reporting by Noah Shachtman
From Rolling Stone US
