The musician and fashion designer, who has legally changed his name to Ye, was temporarily barred from using his account on the micro-blogging platform on October 9, after he posted that he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”
While it was not specified how long Ye was locked out of his account, he posted for the first time on Wednesday, days after billionaire Elon Musk finalized his purchase of the platform, amid expectations he will reverse bans and prioritize free speech.
For his return, Ye opted to forgo any words, instead sharing a black-and-white photo of NBA star Kyrie Irving, who is also under fire after he posted about a documentary that is widely deemed to be antisemitic.
The image posted by Ye, which shows the Brooklyn Nets guard holding a basketball, received more than 80,000 likes in less than three hours.
“Jesus Walks” rapper Ye’s post echoes another that he shared on Instagram on October 30, when he captioned another image of Irving: “There’s some real ones still here.”
On October 27, Irving—known for discussing conspiracy theories off the court—posted a link to a documentary titled Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America on Twitter, sparking backlash from many, including the NBA and Nets team owner Joe Tsai, as well as several Jewish organizations.
The 2018 documentary is based on a 2014 book of the same title by Ronald Dalton. The film advertises itself as an exploration of how the biblical identity of Black people has been covered up by Islam, Judaism and Christianity.
Rolling Stone reported that both the movie and the book follow ideas that belong to “extreme factions” within the Black Hebrew Israelite movement that have been accused of being antisemitic, homophobic, xenophobic, misogynistic and even Islamophobic.
Ye kicked off his month of controversy at his October 3 Yeezy fashion show in Paris. He appeared wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words “White Lives Matter,” a slogan commonly used by white supremacists as well as opponents of the Black Lives Matter movement.
Amid the backlash, West shared a screenshot of what appeared to be a text message exchange with Sean “Diddy” Combs, in which he responded to the rap mogul’s objection to his stunt by saying he would “show the Jewish people that told you to call me that no one can threaten or influence me.”
After West’s since-removed post led to his Instagram account being restricted, the musician continued sharing his thoughts on Twitter, where he said that he was “going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE.”
The antisemitic statements led to Ye being locked out of his Instagram and Twitter accounts, but he made similar remarks in subsequent interviews, prompting a number of businesses to cut ties with him.
Sportswear giant Adidas, which had worked with Ye on his Yeezy sneaker collections since 2015, also announced that it was immediately severing ties with the star, bringing to an end his most valuable business relationship.
Ye—whose California school, Donda Academy, was suddenly closed last week without explanation—subsequently saw his net worth plummet from $2 billion to $400 million in a matter of a day, per Forbes.
NBC News reported this week that Ye’s social media issues have continued, as he received a 30-day ban from posting on Instagram from October 30.
According to Ye’s post shared on Parler, the social media platform he was recently announced to be acquiring, he attempted to share a screenshot of a text message exchange with another person he identified as Def Jam Recordings founder Russell Simmons. Per The New York Times, Ye and his label G.O.O.D. Music are no longer affiliated with Def Jam.
In the screenshot shared on Parler, the person identified as Simmons encourages Ye to “leave this fight and strategize” and “rebuild your biz,” prompting the rapper to respond with a disparaging claim about “Jewish business people.” He also posted a screenshot of a notification from Instagram informing him off his ban “until 2022-11-29.”
According to NBC News, a spokesperson for Meta—the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp—confirmed that the company had placed a restriction on Ye’s access to the platform and deleted content from his account for violating its policies.
Newsweek has reached out to representatives of Ye and Meta for comment.
Update 11/3/22, 6:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to add information.