David Schwimmer demands Kanye West's removal from social media

David Schwimmer is speaking out against the recent hateful outburst from Kanye West.

Amid a barrage of divisive and antisemitic tweets from West, the well-known Friends star rushed to Instagram on Saturday afternoon to beg Elon Musk, the owner of X, to have him taken off the platform.

“We can’t stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate filled, ignorant bile… but we CAN stop giving him a megaphone, Mr. Musk,” shared the Jewish actor. 

“Kanye West has 32.7 million followers on your platform, X. That’s twice as many people than the number of Jews in existence. His sick hate speech results in REAL LIFE violence against Jews.”

Following a prank on the Grammy Awards red carpet in which his wife, Bianca Censori, undressed to expose her nude body beneath a transparent stocking dress, West has been posting on social media nonstop for a few days.

However, his most recent statements over the last day or so have sparked concerns because he has applauded Adolf Hitler, who is known to be a Nazi, endorsed a Yeezy t-shirt design with a swastika, resurfaced his contentious remarks on slavery, condemned the #MeToo movement, and attacked plus-sized models.

Schwimmer focused on the fact that using such words in the past would have resulted in the suspension of a user's account. When West tweeted a swastika and unleashed a string of tweets with similarly upsetting content, he was banned for over eight months, from December 2022 until the summer of 2023. 

Musk owned X at the time, but since then, the business magnate has loosened moderation rules, brought back contentious accounts, and essentially eliminated fact-checking in favour of community remarks. 

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, followed his example earlier this year with Facebook and Instagram.

Schwimmer then asked "what's worse," whether West's identification as a Nazi or "the fact there is not sufficient OUTRAGE to remove and ban him from all social media at this point." 

The Friends alum has frequently used his platform to speak out against antisemitism over the past few years.

There hasn't been the same call to action in response to West's posts as there was a few years ago, despite the fact that some well-known celebrities have joined Schwimmer in speaking out. 

Meghan McCain called him "a truly demonic person," and Piers Morgan also asked Musk why he's still permitted on X.