A screenshot of rapper Wiley from his Instagram video (courtesy Instagram)
Strong points
- Facebook deactivated its Instagram account on Tuesday
- “I’m a businessman,” rapper Wiley said
- Twitter permanently banned it on Wednesday
London:
British rapper Wiley apologized Wednesday for “generalizing” a series of anti-Semitic messages that permanently banned him from Twitter.
“I’m not a racist, you know. I’m a businessman,” Wiley told Sky News after the social media platform made his initial suspension from the artist permanent.
“I want to apologize for the generalization, and I want to apologize for the comments that were deemed anti-Semitic.”
The 41-year-old East Londoner – born Richard Cowie but known to fans as the “Godfather of Grime” – is one of the most popular and successful artists in the UK rap scene.
He had around half a million subscribers before Twitter suspended him last Friday for seven days for a series of posts comparing the Jewish community to the Ku Klux Klan.
Other articles said Jews controlled commercial interests and should leave Israel because “this is not your country.”
Wiley also shared the posts on Facebook-owned Instagram photo-sharing platform.
Facebook deactivated its Instagram account on Tuesday and Twitter permanently banned it on Wednesday.
But Twitter’s move only followed a 48-hour boycott launched by several celebrities and British MPs for leaving some of its messages visible for hours.
Twitter said it used the period of temporary suspension to review the case.
“Following further investigation, our teams have permanently suspended the account in question for repeated violations of our hateful conduct policy,” Twitter said in a statement.
“Let’s be clear: Hateful behavior has absolutely no place in our service and we strongly condemn anti-Semitism.
“We are sorry that we did not progress faster and continue to assess the situation internally.”
British police also said they were investigating his statements on social media accounts.
The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said it welcomed the news that Twitter had “finally listened”.
But he said the decision was “too little, too late”.
“It’s at least a start for this deeply irresponsible social network,” the group added.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
