The Ye Effect
World famous American rapper, Kanye West, has always been one of the most talked about celebrities in the world. He has a long history of controversy and is known to speak his mind no matter the repercussions. From interrupting Taylor Swift at the 2009 MTV Music awards, to running for president in 2020, West has always been someone with something to say. In the last several years, West’s controversies have taken a dark and hateful turn. West has recently been making consistent public statements and posts on social media where he glorifies government conspiracies, racism, and antisemitism. These extremely hateful and damaging comments have taken over the internet. Not only are his words hurtful to many different communities all over the world, but they are even inspiring his massive fanbase, who are now going out and further attacking these affected groups. The influence that Kanye West has and the damage he has caused is unimaginable. So much so, that billion dollar companies that once sponsored and collaborated with Kanye; Adidas, Balenciaga, The Gap, have pulled out of their agreements. These companies have stated that they are no longer working with West and are pulling all items off the shelf that are in collaboration with him. This removal of sponsorship has reduced Kanye from being a billionaire to a millionaire. Kanye’s detrimental comments, loss of sponsorship and reduction in overall wealth all have huge impacts on our society, the increase of hate crimes and hate speech towards marginalized groups, and the stock market.
Kanye has been on Wikipedia since 2004 and since then his page has been edited and updated rapidly as his career grows. I am choosing to focus on Kanye’s most recent edits regarding his antisemitic comments which resulted in the loss of sponsorships, and how editors on Wikipedia have handled these updates. Kanye’s page has 10 main editors that over the past 10 years have been making the most consistent changes to the page. His top editor, known on Wikipedia by their username “Saginaw-hitchhiker”, has edited 8.6% of the page themself, adding close to 30,000 characters. Overall Kanye’s page has had 5,366 contributors that have worked together over the last 18 years to create the page we see today. On average the page gets edited over 760 times a year, but 2022 already has over 880 edits. Using these statistics, my primary goal for this analysis will be to determine how Kanye’s antisemitic comments in the last year have affected the number of contributors on his page.
October of 2022 was when Kanye West hateful antisemitic comments became trending on Twitter. Kanye Tweeted “I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE. The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jews. Also you guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone who opposes your agenda”. This tweet took the internet and news by storm and people were outraged by the celebrity’s comments and how dangerously influential he is to the public. It didnt take long for Wikipedia contributors to add this tweet and other instances of Kanye demonstrating antisemitism. In October of 2022, there were 94 different changes made to Kanye’s Wikipedia account, and in the 30 days to follow, there have been 368 edits made to his page. As you can see this tweet and Kanye’s other actions that took place in October have caused a boost in the Wikipedia community updating his page.
This visualization showcased the top ten main editors of Kanye West’s page and the percentage in which they contribute. Additionally the top and longest bar showcases all other accounts that edit the page and the percentage they edit combined.
This graph shows us the months in 2022 and the amount of edits made in each month. As you can clearly see, October is by far the month with the most edits and I believe that that is due to the controversy regarding the loss of sponsors because of Kanye’s discriminatory comments. Most of the other months are pretty low, having between 10 and 20 edits, while October consists of over 90 edits.
Most recently on December 2nd, Kanye West was “suspended from Twitter after he tweeted an image of a swastika inside the Star of David. Elon Musk said the post violated the platform’s rule against inciting violence. The tweet was deleted shortly before West’s account was shut down”. This tweet, not only sparked violence and hate speech from Kanye’s fans who share his antisemitic views, but it also resulted in people talking about Kanye West all over the world. His popularity, whether in support or against him, has sprung in the last year especially on sites like Wikipedia where people flood to his page after each damaging comment. On December 2nd, after Kanye’s antisemitic tweet and removal from Twitter, Kanye West’s page on Wikipedia received 194,865 page views. The day before Kanye received 64,302 page views which is way closer to his November average of about 30,000 views a day. As you can see, the comments made by Kanye on December 2nd led thousands of people to Kanye’s page. This spike in interest in Kanye West can be attributed to his hateful comments which ultimately are very detrimental to our society and especially to the Jewish community who are receiving hate. According to the LA Times, “On Saturday, demonstrators gave Nazi salutes as they stood behind a large overpass banner that read, “Kanye is right about the Jews,” according to images collected by antidiscrimination organizations and Jewish residents appalled by the group’s message”. This is one instance of how Kanye’s massive influence is leading extremely detrimental acts of hate speech and even violence against the Jewish community.
This graph showcases the page views Kanye West has received in the end of November and the beginning of December. As you can see, on December 2, there was a substantial increase in the number of people who viewed his page.
West’s tweets regarding government conspiracies and antisemitism have proved to be extremely damaging to affected groups. The LA times quotes Sam Yebri, a lawyer and former Anti-Defamation League board member saying that, “Yebri said neither antisemitism nor the ideas espoused in the fliers found around L.A. are new, but he nonetheless drew a connection between the recent proliferation and West’s rhetoric. ‘Kanye’s remarks give added air and momentum to the hate that previously was limited to the dark corners of the internet,’ Yebri said. ‘Now it’s popping up in neighborhoods, at people’s homes and throughout Los Angeles’”(L.A. Times). People living in Los Angeles neighborhoods have reported flyers being left on their door steps and cars saying slurs and hateful stereotypes about Jewish people and the LGBTQ+ community.
This flier is an example of some of the messages that have been placed on the doorsteps of countless Jewish people in L.A.
West’s massive audience on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram proves to be very dangerous when used to inspire people to vocalize hate for marginalized communities. His power to influence such a massive group of people across the country and the world becomes very dangerous when the content turns from talking about a recent album release, to writing threats to an entire community. This type of language, although protected by the first amendment, “is clearly a targeted harassment campaign against the Jewish people”, says Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism.
Unfortunately, Kanye’s popularity on sites like Wikipedia, skyrocket after antisemitic comments have been posted on social media. As this graph shows, December 2nd has about 83,000 more views than the next highest day that week.
Additionally, as this graph shows, each of the high spikes from October 1st to December 7th have all been when Kanye has posted hate speech on Twitter or Instagram, or lost contracts as a result of his comments. As you can see, without fail, Kanye’s racist, government conspiracy, and antisemitic comments on social media directly result in an increase of page views on Wikipedia, which then correspond with his extremist following acting out in the physical world.
These findings reveal that Kanye West’s tweets, Instagram posts, and interview comments that consists on antisemitic comments, have greatly influenced the amount of revisions and contributions on Kanyes Wikipedia page. Additionally, the more popular his accounts get as a result of these comments, the more inspiration the extremist groups that support him and his message get. Overall, Kanye West’s influence on the public and the damage he causes to marginalized communities is massive, and the impact that his actions will have on society and these groups are not yet fully uncovered. We as a society need to remember that when a person with substantial influence broadcasts their stance on a subject matter, others blindly follow without critically analyzing the repercussions of their actions and words. Although the hate online may seem like empty threats, these dark comments are spreading around the internet and seeping into real life where people are experiencing hate speech and harassment. We must hold each other to a higher standard to educate ourselves and prevent falling into “The Ye Effect”.
