(New York, N.Y.) — The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) condemns the ongoing availability of the Ye (the artist formerly known as Kanye West) song “Heil Hitler” on X and calls on the platform to remove the video. As of May 20, the song has garnered over 10 million views on the platform, having been uploaded 12 days prior. The song includes the Nazi salute “Heil Hitler” and contains a sample of a 1935 speech in German where the dictator addressed factory workers declaring that he had worked tirelessly in their best interests. The song is not officially available on other major music platforms, such as Spotify or Apple Music.
According to X’s own Grok AI, the song “likely violates X’s Hateful Conduct policy due to its glorification of Nazi ideology, antisemitic content and potential to incite harm.” The continued availability of the song is a clear policy choice made by the social media site. CEP has previously noted the availability of antisemitic content on X, including 25 accounts linked to white supremacist Active Club chapters located in April and a ten part video that has received hundreds of thousands of views that glorifies Nazi Germany and justifies the crimes of the Third Reich, which remains on the platform one year after CEP reported it in May 2024.
Online extremists have noted their satisfaction with the Ye song and resulting press, with members of a chat connected to a neo-Nazi book publisher noting that Jews were their chief enemy and that spreading antisemitism was always beneficial. Another member of the same chat said that propaganda needed to appeal to multiple audiences.
This song openly promotes Hitler during a period of rising global antisemitism. X should immediately remove the video.
CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler commented:
“The fact that this openly antisemitic content remains on X’s platform after it already gained media attention is another example of the abject failure of social media platforms to adhere even to their own terms of service. Allowing antisemitic content to be distributed via global social media platforms is always abhorrent. However, the current unprecedented rise of antisemitism around the globe following the pogrom-like attack of Hamas against Israel, including against civilians, on October 7, 2023, is even more condemnable. Antisemitism, whether expressed online or offline, regularly leads to violence. X must act immediately.”
To read CEP’s report on antisemitism, click here.