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Anti-hate organisations urge online creators to not provide Kanye West with a platform
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 12 December 2022
Five Jewish and anti-hate organisations in the US have asked online creators to resist the temptation to provide Kanye West with further opportunities to share his racist and antisemitic views, given that to date the rapper has met the backlash to his controversial statements by simply ramping up his dangerous rhetoric.
While more mainstream media – and social media platforms – have started to cut off West since he started pushing a racist, antisemitic agenda, he still has various channels online to share his views, and an interview with the rapper can get those online channels a lot of attention.
He recently appeared with far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones on his ‘Infowars’ show. Although even Jones seemed taken aback when West declared that: “I see good things about Hitler … Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler”.
The new message urging online creators and influencers to not provide a platform for West has come from the Anti-Defamation League, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Jewish Committee, StopAntisemitism and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
In part they were responding to news that white nationalist Nick Fuentes, who has become an ally of West of late, has been talking to popular Twitch gamer Adin Ross about arranging an interview with the rapper.
Ross, who is Jewish, has reportedly said that he was planning to “stand up for the Jews” in any interview. However, campaigners say – while that might be an admirable aim on Ross’s part – providing any opportunity for West to speak at the moment could have negative and dangerous consequences.
NBC News quote Liora Rez, Executive Director of StopAntisemitism, as saying: “Anybody who gives [West] a platform, you’re basically complicit at this point. The only goal of his is to spew hatred and further vilify Jews”.
Even if Ross sought to challenge West’s views, Rez added, the interview could still stoke antisemitic violence. “I would hope and we would hope that Aiden Ross’ ratings and follower base are put secondary to the safety of Jews”, she added.
Meanwhile Daniel Kelley, Director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Center For Technology And Society, said: “When you give an antisemite a megaphone to shout their antisemitism, whether that’s a large mainstream platform where they have a following or whether you’re a streamer who is giving over your audience to them, I think it normalises antisemitism and it makes it so that Jews are less safe”.
West sharing his views via a platform like Twitch could be particularly damaging, Kelley added. “We are seeing the continued normalisation of white supremacist ideas in gaming spaces”, he explained. “I think there is a real danger to giving a platform to this kind of conversation in that space”.
Ross himself hasn’t commented on any plans to interview West via his Twitch channel, though some have speculated that while a conversation was considered, it is not – in fact – going ahead.
If that is the case, Kelley added, Ross should say so. “I think that would be a really powerful statement”, he went on, “and it would say something to the audiences that these streamers reach, that is, ‘You know, we thought about it, and by giving a platform to Kanye West we would be amplifying and normalising antisemitism’”.
