X and Spotify do not come after deleting

Kanye West’s new song with Nazi glorification and a slogan, who is punishable in Germany, causes excitement: While Spotify and other platforms remove the track, it remains largely freely available on X.

Platforms fight with the spread of hate messages

A new song by the US rapper Kanye West, which glorifies Adolf Hitler, poses a challenge with streaming and social media platforms. While some services remove the content, others, especially Twitter or X, essentially refuse to delete them. The artist, who now calls himself Ye, published the track with the title and chorus “Heil Hitler” in Germany, which is punishable in Germany together with the accompanying piece “WW3” last Thursday – probably not by chance also the day of the liberation of Germany.

Until the beginning of this week, the video on platform X already reached over 8.2 million views. The song contains banned Nazi slogans in Germany and thus violates German law. Right -wing extremists also share the video cheerfully, user clips with clear gestures are also not uncommon.

Different reactions of the platforms

While some platforms such as Spotify and YouTube are actively working on removing the song, it spreads more or less freely on channels like X. How Deadline and NBC News report, the track has already been removed by many streaming services such as Spotify and Soundcloud.

On the other hand, the song remains available on X – along with a graphic that resembles a swastika. So far, the platform under the leadership of Elon Musk has shown no signs of taking action against the content, although it violates applicable law in several countries. In the case of “WW3”, a second YE song with anti-Semitism and glorification of Nazis, Spotify and Co. are not so consistent, he can currently be heard unhindered there.

Bypassing the locks

Despite the efforts of the platforms, users find paths to bypass the restrictions. They upload cover versions or bed the music in podcasts. On Soundcloud, 27 alternative versions of the song have already been identified and partially removed. For Kanye West, it is not the first incident of this kind, quite the contrary. In recent years, the rapper has repeatedly made headlines with anti-Semitic statements and open Hitler worship, which led to the loss of numerous business relationships. Adidas ended the lucrative cooperation with the artist in 2022 after he had several anti -Semitic statements.