Under Texas' social media law, Kanye West's antisemitic posts on Twitter and Instagram would likely stay up, signaling a difficult future for social media

Taking down the rapper's bigoted posts was an easy call for Twitter and Instagram. That could change if Elon Musk and some GOP leaders have their way.

Washington Post 2022-10-11

Context & Ripple Effects

The article identifies Texas' social media law as a direct challenge to Twitter and Instagram's ability to remove Ye's antisemitic content. Later coverage made that tension concrete: Twitter restored Ye's account before subsequently suspending it over a swastika image.

X's later reinstatement of Ye with monetization restrictions shows a middle path between full removal and unrestricted distribution, underscoring why rules governing platform moderation affect both access and commercial treatment.

First-order effects

Twitter and Instagram would face a narrower ability to take down Ye's antisemitic posts if Texas' law applies as described, despite having removed them under their own moderation policies.
Ye would retain access to major platforms for content that the companies had previously judged removable.

Second-order effects

Twitter's shifting treatment of Ye—from reinstatement to suspension—illustrates how a legal limit on removals would make platform-rule enforcement more contested for Elon Musk's company and its peers.
Platforms may rely more heavily on account-level or monetization restrictions, as X later did with Ye, when outright removal is constrained.

Third-order effects

If state-level limits on platform moderation hold, social networks' content rules become less uniform across markets and more dependent on legal constraints than on company policy.
The dispute points toward a moderation model in which platforms differentiate among removal, account access, and monetization rather than treating them as a single decision.

The trend: Social-media governance is shifting from platform-set removal rules toward legal battles over whether private services may exclude harmful speech.

Discussion

@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@kanyewest Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!
@kanyewest @kanyewest on x
Look at this Mark How you gone kick me off instagram You used to be my nigga https://twitter.com/...
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@kanyewest Talked to ye today & expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart
@agtoddrokita Todd Rokita on x
The constant hypocrisy from the media is at an all-time high. They have now gone after Kanye for his new fashion line, his independent thinking, & for having opposing thoughts from the norm of Hollywood. https://www.msnbc.com/...
@joycewhitevance Joyce Alene on x
Kanye West has more than 3 million followers. He threatened to go “death con 3” on Jewish people. I don't hear his GOP supporters coming out to condemn this. Instead, Jewish people are being told to get over it because he isn't serious.
@yair_rosenberg Yair Rosenberg on x
Kanye's tweets exemplify why antisemitism is so hard to uproot: it's a self-affirming conspiracy theory. The antisemite claims that Jews control everything. Then, if they're penalized for their bigotry, they point to that as proof. Heads they win, tails Jews lose. https://twitter…
@kanyewest @kanyewest on x
Who you think created cancel culture?
@davidmackau David Mack on x
Twitter spokesperson tells me Kanye's account has been locked for violating their policies.
@kaivanshroff Kaivan Shroff on x
Let's be very clear. This is Elon Musk welcoming Kanye back to twitter after he was limited on Instagram due to anti-semitism. It was an open invite to share that anti-semitism on Twitter, which Kanye did immediately after this. This is Musk's vision for this platform. Pathetic. …
@johngcole John Cole on x
These authors could have spoken to any woman, person of color, or lgbtq member to learn this is the current state of social media Kanye's antisemitic tweet could be a preview of social media's future https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@martinsfp @martinsfp on x
First line of content moderation in the Elon Musk Twitter era is going to be a polite chat with the owner. https://twitter.com/...
@russellbrandom Russell Brandom on x
There is a real argument that moderation rules should be applied more harshly for major public figures — put simply, garbage like this does more damage when someone like Kanye is saying it https://twitter.com/...
@maggienyt Maggie Haberman on x
Regardless of what motivates Kanye West, an attorney general defending someone for a lengthy public attack on Jews is a new dimension to 2022 https://twitter.com/...
@davidmackau David Mack on x
Meta spokesperson also confirms to me they deleted content from Ye's Instagram account and put a restriction on it for breaking their rules. (Matching NBC reporting)
@meidas_laurena @meidas_laurena on x
“Between a growing field of state laws that seek to restrict content moderation and Elon Musk's determination to loosen Twitter's policies, posts such as Ye's could soon become more prevalent online.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@elivalley @elivalley on x
For those catching up, the head of the @ADL 1. praised reactionary sociopath Elon Musk one (1) day before Musk welcomed Kanye's antisemitic screeds 2. Did so while lauding Henry Ford, the most notorious antisemite in 20th century America https://twitter.com/...
@willoremus Will Oremus on x
@viaCristiano Meanwhile, @elonmusk has said that as owner of Twitter he would allow most legal speech, even if offensive. Kanye's tweet implying violence against Jews is almost certainly legal under the First Amendment, as @JameelJaffer notes. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... …
@jbouie @jbouie on x
approximately 90 percent of the people who use “independent thinking” in this way in a sentence are just talking about how they're proud of believing the ideas of the gutter bigots of a hundred years ago https://twitter.com/...
@okwonga Musa Okwonga on x
Kanye West sends a violently anti-Semitic tweet and Musk gives this lukewarm response. Because these accounts have the combined following of over 130 million, this sadly isn't a discourse we can simply ignore. It's enabling hate and ignorance at a huge scale. https://twitter.com/…
@cbouzy Christopher Bouzy on x
Just remember, if Elon Musk owned Twitter, Kanye West's tweet wouldn't have been deleted.
@willoremus Will Oremus on x
Taking down Ye's blatantly antisemitic posts was an easy call for Instagram and Twitter. Texas' social media law would make that kind of call much harder—and legally risky. Story by me and @viaCristiano: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@kirawontmiss @kirawontmiss on x
Kanye is back on twitter?? We're about to get classic tweets
@popcrave @popcrave on x
Ariana Grande reshares Instagram posts condemning Kanye West for his antisemitic comments. https://twitter.com/...
@ogaride Ari Ingel on x
“West's antisemitism proved too blatant for Twitter to ignore. But had he added even the slightest sheen of plausible deniability to his words, it's likely that many on the platform and beyond would be defending them right now.” — @Yair_Rosenberg https://newsletters.theatlantic.c…
@mannyfidel Manny on x
oh thank god. kanye west took elon musk's concerns to heart 👍🏽 https://twitter.com/...
@jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x
To repeat: The right thinks that speech is censorship. Criticism is speech. Choice—editing & moderating—is speech. The right won't protect choice because it ruins their fun finding ever-more outrageous things to say. https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@markdistef Mark Di Stefano on x
Starting to think the newsroom strategy of writing up every Elon and Kanye tweet as news is going to lead us to a dark and dumb place.
@maxberger Max Berger on x
Yesterday, Kanye said he was going “Def Con 3” against Jewish people after he got kicked off Instagram. 12 hours earlier, Elon Musk had welcomed Kanye back to Twitter. A day before, ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt said he was eager for Musk to take over Twitter. https://twitter…
@aoc Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on x
There is absolutely no room in this country or world for antisemitism. It is important to see how harmful + dangerous Kanye's words are - not only to our Jewish brothers, sisters, & siblings, but also to our collective society at large. We must reject this 🚮 wherever we see it.
@esqueer_ Alejandra Caraballo on x
People need to realize this antisemitism isn't just Kanye. 4chan users are already celebrating and calling for Elon to do something about the tweet being deleted. Tucker Carlson is a huge reason why this is happening. This is going to escalate, Kanye is just the catalyst. https:/…
@sarahksilverman Sarah Silverman on x
Kanye threatened the Jews yesterday on twitter and it's not even trending. Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate? The silence is so loud

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