Kanye West’s Hate Speech Must Be Deplatformed

May 8, 2025

Statement from Jim Berk, CEO of Simon Wiesenthal Center

Kanye West’s release of a song entitled ‘Heil Hitler’ on VE Day, the anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi regime, is hate speech, pure and simple—totally in line with the despicable messages we now expect from West.

But his partner in spreading dangerous vitriol against Jews is X, which is allowing flagrant violation of its own rules reading, “You may not directly attack other people on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious disease.”

We call on X to remove West from its platform and for other platforms and distributors to refuse to host or monetize this song. There must be a clear line when it comes to glorification of genocidal regimes, particularly to millions of young people.

For further information, please email Erik Simon at esimon@wiesenthal.com, Deborah Camiel at dcamiel@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your X feed. 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an international Jewish human rights organization. It holds consultative status at the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the OAS, and the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO).