British Rapper Wiley Banned From Twitter After Anti-Semitic Tweets

British rapper Wiley apologize for anti-Semitic remarks on Wednesday in an interview with Sky News after getting permanently banned by Twitter. Wiley explained that he is sorry for “generalizing” the community, but claims that he is still upset in the way that the Jewish community treated him within his music industry. 

Wiley said, “I’m not racist, you know. I’m a businessman. My comments should not have been directed to all Jews or Jewish people. I want to apologize for generalizing, number one, and I want to apologize for comments that were looked at as anti-Semitic.”

At first, Wiley was suspended from Twitter for seven days last week after he posted a series of tweets that compared the Jewish community to the Ku Klux Klan and said that they controlled business interest. 

Wiley explained to Sky News that his comments came after a disagreement he had with his manager John Woolf, who is Jewish. “Maybe I didn’t remove the ignorance from the truths where I was speaking about the Jewish community within the music business that I have worked with for the last 20 years,” he said.

In response, Woolf tweeted, “Following Wileys anti semitic tweets today we at @A_ListMGMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for antisemitism.”

Following Wileys anti semitic tweets today we at @A_ListMGMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for antisemitism.

— John Woolf (@Jrwoolfw) July 24, 2020

He added,  “Judaism teaches that the concept of forgiveness constitutes one of the most essential fundamentals of the human relationship with God and with each other.”

Judaism teaches that the concept of forgiveness constitutes one of the most essential fundamentals of the human relationship with God and with each other.

— John Woolf (@Jrwoolfw) July 24, 2020

Wiley had also shared a video of him expressing these viewpoints on Instagram. Facebook, which owes Instagram deactivated his accounts on both platforms on Tuesday. 

Twitter on the other hand waited until Wednesday to ban Wiley. In the time between Wiley’s suspension and ban, many British celebrities and members of Parliament boycotted Twitter for 48 hours. 

Twitter released a statement that read, “Let us be clear: hateful conduct has absolutely no place on our service and we strongly condemn anti-Semitism. We are sorry we did not move faster and are continuing to assess the situation internally.”