Rapper and presidential hopeful Kanye West posted the phone number of Forbes editor Randall Lane on Twitter and slammed him as a “white supremacist,” only to have the post swiftly removed by the social media platform.
West was on something of a Twitter spree on Wednesday, posting a deluge of odd tweets – but his message about Lane was short-lived, lasting only about 30 minutes before Twitter swooped in to remove it.
“If any of my fans want to call a white supremacist…this is the editor of Forbes,” West tweeted to his 30 million followers. The tweet included a screenshot of Lane’s number in the rapper’s phone, where he was listed as “Randall Forbes.”
While the tweet’s lifespan was short, it still received 17,000 retweets before Twitter removed the image for violating their rules.
Sharing someone’s private information violates Twitter’s rules. A first violation of this rule will lead to the user being suspended from tweeting, and a second violation leads to the offending account being permanently deleted. A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider that West’s tweet is under “review” with the company’s moderation team.
West’s problem with Lane may stem from an August interview between the two that ran with the headline: ‘Kanye West indicates that his spoiler campaign is indeed designed to hurt Biden’.
Outlets have run various reports indicating West, a former Donald Trump supporter, has only launched an independent presidential campaign to hurt Joe Biden’s chances in November, but West has denied this on numerous occasions.
Lane’s interview was only conducted briefly through text and West did not directly say he was running to hurt Biden. The rapper only said he was “walking…to win” when asked about running a spoiler campaign.
When Lane questioned his chances of winning – given that he is only on several state ballots and that a “write-in” campaign would be next to impossible – West simply replied, “I’m not going to argue with you. Jesus is King.”
Several of West’s other Wednesday tweets have trended on Twitter, including one where he referred to himself as “baby Putin” and another featuring someone, possibly himself, appearing to urinate on one of his Grammy Awards. He has also tweeted heavily this week about being released from his record contract and called record labels“modern day slave ships.” None of his other recent tweets have been removed by Twitter.
Wednesday’s Twitter antics mean West is technically the second US presidential candidate to have a social media post removed, following President Trump. Both Twitter and Facebook removed a post shared by Trump where he claimed children were “virtually immune” from Covid-19.
TRUST ME I WONT STOP UNTIL ALL IS FAIR TRUST ME FROM NAT YE AKA BABY PUTIN
Trust me … I WONT STOP pic.twitter.com/RmVkqrSa4F
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