Kanye West Returns to Twitter Weeks After Elon Musk Reverses Account Suspension

American musician Ye has returned to Twitter after a two-week hiatus from the social network, and new owner Elon Musk welcomed him back on the platform. Posting from an iPhone on Sunday, the artist formerly known as Kanye West first tested that he was still unblocked — his account had been temporarily suspended and restored at the end of October, which Musk said was not his decision — before following up with “Shalom”. Ye's earlier suspension had been due to an antisemitic tweet. The hip hop artist last month agreed to buy social media platform Parler, embraced by conservatives as an alternative to Twitter.

Musk responded positively to Ye's initial tweet, tweeting “Don't kill what ye hate, Save what ye love.”

Twitter's new leader, who's also chief executive officer of Tesla and SpaceX, spent the weekend polling his followers on the platform whether to restore the access of Donald Trump, the former US president who was permanently suspended following the Jan. 6 breaching of the US capitol. Some 52 percent responded in the affirmative and Trump is now clear to return — though he's responded saying that he'll stick to his own social network, Truth Social.

Musk posted and deleted a tweet that depicted Twitter as a drug that Trump will be sorely tempted to return to. The billionaire Twitter owner's courtship of the network's controversial figures — beside himself — threatens to further alienate advertisers, who have been wary about associating their brands with the service in recent times.

Twitter has been setting new highs for user numbers under Musk's leadership, which has attracted attention for abrupt job cuts, equivocation on product changes and an ultimatum to employees to either stay for a new “hardcore” work culture or leave.