BBC reports that grime star Wiley has been banned from Facebook and Instagram — which Facebook owns — after another anti-Semitic tirade the company says violated its policies. The British rapper posted anti-Semitic comments on his personal Facebook page after having a similar rant removed from Twitter. Since then, Wiley has been called out by several prominent British public figures, including the Prime Minister, who also called for Twitter to review its anti-hate protocols. Wiley was also dropped from his management and lost his label’s distribution deal as a result of his comments.
According to BBC, the posts “aimed abuse at Jewish celebrities” who had previously called him out over his initial Twitter rant. He also repeatedly mentioned a Jewish majority London neighborhood, Golders Green. The comments on his posts — numbering less than 100 each, per BBC, but still disturbing — also aimed invective at Britain’s Jewish community. Wiley’s fan page was also removed, although the posts did not appear on the fan page. Initially, his accounts were suspended but later, they were removed entirely. A Facebook spokesperson said Wiley’s account had “repeated violations” of Facebook’s policies.
WIley’s actions and the reaction to them mirror Nick Cannon’s fall from grace several weeks ago after he discussed and promoted several anti-Semitic canards on his podcast. He was dropped from his contract with Viacom, later issuing an apology. Along with Ice Cube, who shared conspiracy theory memes on Twitter, none of the rappers involved seem to believe that their actions and words were actually anti-Semitic, suggesting they don’t know what anti-Semitism actually is.
