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Kanye West’s online store, Yeezy.com, was discontinued by Shopify on Tuesday due to the sale of a controversial Swastika t-shirt, which surfaced shortly after a peculiar advertisement aired during the Super Bowl. The website is currently inaccessible, displaying a message that simply states, “something went wrong.”
In a statement regarding their decision, Shopify emphasized that “All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms, so we removed them from Shopify.”
During the Super Bowl, West promoted the website through an ad that was filmed in a low-budget style using an iPhone. In the video, he is shown sitting in a dentist’s chair as he encourages viewers to visit Yeezy.com. In a rather unconventional approach, he mentioned that he couldn’t afford a more sophisticated advertisement because he had spent all his funds on his grill.
However, according to various reports, the advertisement wasn’t widely viewed during the game. It was only broadcasted on local Fox affiliates in three cities: Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Atlanta.
Reports indicate that West may have misled the local stations as well. At the time of the initial ad airing, Yeezy.com featured multiple clothing items for sale. However, within an hour, the site was altered to only showcase a singular item, the Swastika t-shirt labeled “HH-01,” which was priced at $20.
Despite the swift backlash, Shopify continued to operate the website for over 24 hours, allowing purchases of the inflammatory merchandise. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) responded by calling on Fox Sports to denounce the advertisement and initiated a petition for public endorsement.
“At the Super Bowl, hate took a front-row seat. Kanye West promoted an ad with a link to swastika t-shirts, broadcasting it to millions on live TV,” the ADL stated. “Just days earlier, his dangerous rants on X praised Hitler, self-identified as a Nazi, and spread antisemitic vitriol. In 2022, ADL identified 30 incidents of harassment, assault, and vandalism linked to Kanye’s online outbursts. We refuse to let hate win. Bigotry has consequences. Join ADL in demanding that Fox Sports condemn this ad and never give hate a platform again.”
This incident follows an extreme outburst from West on X (formerly Twitter), where he made a series of inflammatory statements, including “I love Hitler. Now what b—s” and “I’m a Nazi.” He also shared an image of himself wearing a shirt that said “say no to Nazis,” accompanied by the caption, “I used to be woke too.”
As of Monday, West’s account on X has been disabled. It remains unclear whether the account was deactivated by the rapper himself or by X for breaching its hate speech policies.
X, which is run by Elon Musk, has outlined that users are prohibited from “directly attacking other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability or serious disease.” X has not provided a response to inquiries regarding the deactivation of West’s account.
Source
www.thewrap.com