Despite being banned on most social media platforms, a provocative new single by Ye, the rapper also known as Kanye West, remains on Elon Musk’s platform, where it has millions of views.
Ye’s latest track references the words of the Nazi salute “Heil Hitler” (“Hail Hitler”), which was used while was in power. The single’s artwork resembles a swastika and the song ends with a lengthy sample from a Hitler speech.
West has been for antisemitic content, and recently lost his Yeezy-brand contract with Adidas after posting a series of antisemitic rants.
Quickly after its release, platforms including , and Soundcloud worked to ban the single due to its antisemitic content. Although the video appears to not to have been uploaded by the artist to other platforms, his celebrity status has meant the video has been sampled and shared by users on , and Reddit, among other platforms, millions of times.
It shows just how little power companies seem to have — or want to put into removing offensive content once it’s already been published.
Nazi symbols prohibited in Germany
From Germany, Ye’s video cannot be directly seen on his X profile, even though the posts were still available on May 13 (changing one’s location to the with a VPN, for example, makes the posts visible again).
The salute “Heil Hitler” was used as an official greeting in Nazi Germany. The accompanying arm movement, which is made with the right arm extended and the palm facing down, is said to have its origins in ancient Rome and was then adopted by fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in the 1920s.
Later, Hitler made it a signature of the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 until 1945.
In the postwar era, West German authorities felt it was best to limit these forms of expression in order to overcome the dark past of the , which claimed millions of victims and traumatized Europe.
The public display or dissemination of Nazi symbols and slogans such as the arm gesture or the phrase became a criminal offense under Section 86a of the German criminal code.
This law associated with “unconstitutional organizations,” including those affiliated with the Nazi party, like the swastika, SS runes, the Nazi salute and slogans.
Their use can be punished with up to three years in prison or with a fine.
Denying the Holocaust is also illegal in Germany and many other European countries, as well as in Canada and Israel.
Eighty years after the end of the war, the ban on Nazi-related content remains strict.
Nazi symbols not banned in the US
To counter the rise of far-right groups and growing antisemitism, other countries have also banned hate symbols — some even recently. In February, Australia passed an that includes minimum sentences for displaying hate symbols, including the Nazi salute.
Meanwhile, in the US, freedom of speech is heavily protected by the US Constitution’s first amendment — and that includes hate speech.
Even though it remains one of the most taboo gestures of the Western world, it is not illegal to perform a Nazi salute or wear a swastika in the United States.
Since , the salute has often been used by neo-Nazis and white nationalists. In 2016, for example, a shocking video showed a white supremacist group supporting Donald Trump’s 2016 Presidential win by raising their arms in an apparent Nazi-style salute.
In January, , who openly supports Germany’s far-right party, came under scrutiny for performing what looked like a Nazi-style salute at US President inauguration. Many claimed it was an accidental likeness, while others said it was intentional.
In response, activists from campaign group Led by Donkeys projected an image on his Tesla factory just outside of Berlin showing Musk doing the gesture, with the title appearing as “Heil Tesla.” The group felt that if the German authorities considered the symbol to be illegal according to the country’s Criminal Code, it would prove Musk had actually done the gesture.
Musk has come under fire for expressing antisemitic views in recent years, including responding to a user on X in 2023 who accused Jews of hating white people, a conspiracy theory popular among white supremacists. “You have said the actual truth,” Musk tweeted in a reply to the user.
Lack of tech company regulation
The recent Kanye West video and the scramble to take it down have caused a renewed look at the content policies of major tech companies, particularly the social media platforms owned by Meta.
In light of the video, the Anti-Defamation League, a US-based, international non-governmental organization that combats antisemitism, bigotry and discrimination, started a petition asking Facebook and Instagram to “reinstate guidelines meant to protect users from disinformation and hate” on Facebook and Instagram in response to changes made earlier this year.
Meta announced in January they would , and loosened rules around hate speech and abuse in light of “recent elections” — a reference to Donald Trump’s presidential win.
Yet, the pro-Hitler rhetoric spouted by West’s latest single still falls under the company’s rule of prohibiting “harmful stereotypes historically linked to intimidation, including Blackface and Holocaust denial.”
Edited by: Elizabeth Grenier
The post Why Kanye West’s pro-Hitler song is illegal in Germany appeared first on Deutsche Welle.
