Rapper Wiley has been abandoned by his management after anti-Semitic posts on his social media accounts.
Wiley’s Twitter account has been temporarily blocked, while Instagram said it had removed some of its content, after a long series of posts on both platforms on Friday and Saturday.
Social media giants are facing increasing pressure to close their accounts.
Police said they were viewing “relevant material” when critics accused Wiley of incitement to racial hatred.
Metropolitan Police officers at Tower Hamlets said in a statement: “We have received a number of reports related to alleged anti-Semitic tweets posted on social media. The Met takes all reports of anti-Semitism very seriously. The relevant material is being evaluated. ” “
There are also calls to lose Wiley’s MBE, designated for music services.
Wiley, 41, known as the “godfather of filth,” shared conspiracy theories and insulted Jews on his Instagram and Twitter accounts, which together have more than 940,000 followers.
Deleted tweets
In a tweet, he said, “I don’t care about Hitler, I care about blacks,” and he also compared the Jewish community to the Ku Klux Klan.
On Instagram, the videos of himself were interspersed with screenshot posts, which have since been removed, including one around noon on Saturday, suggesting that Twitter suspended him from tweeting for a week.
He had already been given a 12-hour ban on Friday night, but continued to tweet on Saturday.
The platform has removed some of its tweets, with a note saying they violated its rules.
Wiley’s manager John Woolf confirmed that the unverified Twitter account belongs to the London-born rapper, whose real name is Richard Cowie.
In a Friday night tweet that is no longer visible, Woolf initially said he was “speaking to him privately.” She also said that after having known Wiley for 12 years, she knows that “she really doesn’t feel that way.”
But on Twitter on Saturday morning, he tweeted: “Following Wiley’s anti-Semitic tweets today, at @A_ListMGMT we have severed all ties to him. There is no place in society for anti-Semitism.”
The two men were photographed together in December with boxer Anthony Joshua.
In a later statement, Mr. Woolf said: “To be very clear here. I do not endorse or endorse what Wiley has said online today in any way.”
“I am a proud Jewish man and I am deeply shocked and saddened, but what he has decided to say.
“I am speaking to key figures in my community in light of today’s tweets. This behavior and hate speech are not acceptable to me.”
Wiley later claimed in a video posted to Instagram that she had “cut ties” with Mr. Woolf, not the other way around.
‘Inflammatory’ comments
Announcer and producer DJ Spoony criticized Wiley’s “inflammatory” comments, tweeting that the artist “still has an important role in our community, but you must first see the error of his / her comments / forms and then open up to the help that will be offered.” .
The Ivors Academy, an association for music writers that awarded Wiley its Inspiration Prize in 2019, said “Such heinous views have no place in the music maker community.”
There has been growing outrage at the responses from social media companies.
The Anti-Semitism Campaign said it had reported Wiley to the Metropolitan Police and asked Twitter and Facebook, who own Instagram, to close their accounts to “avoid a greater amount of anti-Jewish poison.”
“We believe Wiley has committed the crime of incitement to racial hatred, which can carry a substantial prison sentence,” the statement read.
He added that he would contact the Cabinet Office to request that his MBE be lost.
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The rapper, known as Wiley Kat early in his career, was named MBE in 2018.
Lord Mann, government adviser on anti-Semitism, called on Twitter and Instagram to remove it from their platforms.
He said part of the content glorifies a violent attack on a rabbi in London, adding: “That violates all their standards, it is not even marginal.”
Luciana Berger, a Liberal Democrat politician who left the Labor Party out of anti-Semitism last year, said “bile … permeates impressionable (often younger) minds.”
Actors David Baddiel and Tracy-Ann Oberman, both Jews, also called for more action.
Facebook, the owner of Instagram, said in a statement: “There is no place for hate speech on Instagram. We have removed content that violates our policies from this account and are continuing to investigate.”
Twitter said Wiley’s account had been temporarily blocked “for violating our Hateful Conduct policy.”
“Abuse and harassment have no place in our service and we have policies in place, that apply to everyone, everywhere, that address abuse and harassment, violent threats and hate behavior,” he added.
“If we identify accounts that violate any of these rules, we will take compliance measures.”
Wiley first entered the UK singles charts with Wearing My Rolex in 2008. Her subsequent successes include Heatwave in 2012 and Boasty in 2019, a collaboration with rappers Stefflon Don and Sean Paul and actor Idris Elba.
