Kanye West locked out of Twitter account after tweeting Forbes editor's phone number
Kanye West has been given a temporary restriction on his Twitter account after tweeting the personal details of Forbes’ chief content officer.
The rapper revealed the details in a series of tweets on Wednesday evening, shortly after posting a bizarre clip which saw him urinating on one of his Grammy Awards.
Prior to posting the clip, he expanded his tirade against label ownership of musicians’ master recordings, this time adding that Prince and Michael Jackson were “killed” by the music and media industries.
“We used to diss Michael Jackson the media made us call him crazy…then they killed him,” West wrote in one Tweet. In another he posted a photo of Prince, writing: “Let’s get it big bro…you and Michael passed so we can live.”
His friend, basketball player Rick Fox, subsequently confirmed that Kanye had been locked out of his Twitter account.
“My friend @kanyewest wants you all to know that he was kicked off of @Twitter for 12 hours,” he wrote.
It was subsequently revealed that Kanye’s account was locked about sharing a tweet about Forbes’ editor Randall Lane.
My friend @kanyewest wants you all to know that he was kicked off of @Twitter for 12 hours
— Rick Fox (@RickFox) September 17, 2020
The tweet, which has been removed from public view, saw Kanye sharing the phone number of Lane as ‘Randall Forbes’.
He tweeted: “If any of my fans want to call a white supremacist… this is the editor of Forbes.”
Twitter’s violation of privacy rule confirmed: “The first time you violate this policy, we will require you to remove this content. We will also temporarily lock you out of your account before you can Tweet again. If you violate this policy again after your first warning, your account will be permanently suspended.”
In Tweets, he compared himself to Moses and the music industry to a “modern day slave ship”. EMI (owned by Sony/ATV) has controlled the rights to West’s work since 2003.
In January last year, West sued EMI in an attempt to be released from his 2003 contract, which includes an agreement that he “remain actively involved in writing, recording and producing Compositions and Major Label Albums” without retiring. EMI was also given rights to West’s songs that he wrote prior to the agreement.
In response, EMI sued West the following March for allegedly reneging on his “bargained-for contractual obligations to the company”. The dispute was eventually settled in January, as reported by Billboard.
