Elon Musk jokingly said that he wanted to “punch” Kanye West after he posted an image of a swastika on Twitter.
During a Twitter Space live event on Saturday, Mr Musk was asked about his decision to suspend West for inciting violence.
He said, “I personally wanted to punch Kanye, so that was definitely inciting me to violence.”
The Twit Chief had encouraged Mr West’s return to Twitter after personally restoring the 45-year-old’s suspended account two weeks ago.
On Friday, the conservative rapper had tweeted a swastika inside a Star of David, before praising Adolf Hitler in an appearance on rightwing conspiracist Alex Jones’ Infowars programme.
Mr Musk said he had tried to convince West not to post antisemitic content to the social media platform.
He said it was his decision to suspend West, “because at some point you have to say what is incitement to violence because it is against the law in the US”.
He further added, “Posting swastikas in what obviously is not a good way is an incitement to violence.”
The rapper has announced he is running for president in the 2024 election. He has been persistently ignored by commercial partners such as Adidas and Balenciaga since.
