Kanye West posted his last Instagram post on April 18, hinting at plans to leave the platform shortly before deactivating his account.
The artist formerly known as Kanye West uploaded an image of the Instagram deactivation page on his last Instagram post on April 18 — hinting that he was planning to leave the platform. Shortly afterward, Ye deactivated his popular account.
The rapper’s Instagram account has been suspended previously for violating the platform’s terms of service surrounding harassment, bullying, and hate speech. That resulted from his repeated posts criticizing his ex-wife Kim Kardashian’s then-boyfriend Pete Davidson and racial remarks aimed at then-host of The Daily Show, comedian Trevor Noah.
Kanye returned to Instagram last month to declare he “likes Jewish people again” after watching actor Jonah Hill’s performance on 21 Jump Street. Regardless, it recently came to light that the rapper’s 2024 presidential campaign claimed more than $30,000 this year alone in payments to white nationalist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
Unfortunately, that is unsurprising, given Kanye’s penchant for buddying up to Fuentes and other far-right extremists. In November, West organized an infamous dinner with Donald Trump and brought Fuentes as a guest, later claiming that Trump was “really impressed” with Fuentes; Trump claimed he “didn’t know” who Fuentes was and called Kanye “a seriously troubled man.”
Meanwhile, German sportswear giant Adidas severed ties with the rapper last year over his hate speech. This move cost the company a pretty penny — but not nearly as much as Kanye, who saw himself dethroned from Forbes’ Billionaires list as a result.
Ye was also banned from Twitter in 2022 for his anti-Semitic remarks, but Elon Musk lifted that ban after he took control of the platform in November. That same month, reports surfaced that Ye was discussing buying the conservative social media platform Parler, owned by George Farmer, husband of prominent right-wing commentator Candace Owens — but the transaction fell through.