Instagram has blocked Kanye West's account for a day for violating the social media platform's policies on hate speech, bullying and harassment.
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Instagram has deleted content posted by Kanye West, now known as Ye, and is restricting the account from posting, commenting and sending direct messages for 24 hours, Meta Platforms Inc. spokesman Joe Osborne said in a message late Wednesday.
The rapper made a racist Instagram post about “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah after Noah expressed concern that West was harassing his ex-wife Kim Kardashian. Meta said it will take further action against the account for additional violations.
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West responded to Noah with an Instagram post where he replaced some lyrics of the song “Kumbaya” with a racist slur against Black people.
In a monologue on Tuesday, Noah said "I see a woman who wants to live her life without being harassed by an ex-boyfriend or an ex-husband," before recounting the experience of his mother being shot in the head by his stepfather.
Instagram accounts can be banned after repeated violations of the rules, especially if multiple users report an account for bad behavior. Most user accounts can be automatically banned via artificial intelligenceif there are enough reports, but it makes sense that a large verified account like West's would have a team managing it, which could handle the situation better.
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Social media platforms like Facebook have struggled to moderate hateful or harassing content over time. Meta has been targeted by critics for not doing enough to remove hateful content. A whistleblower in October also said that Meta was aware of potential harm Instagram was causing to young people's mental health, for which it recently added parental controls.
Information source: bloomberg.com
