Brit Rapper Wiley Turns to Facebook to Continue Antisemitic Rant After Being Kicked off Twitter, Instagram

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 06: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Wiley performs on the main stage on Day 1
Tabatha Fireman/Getty
Deborah Brand

Disgraced UK rapper Wiley has taken to Facebook to abuse Jewish celebrities who were critical of a slew of antisemitic posts on Twitter and Instagram in which he compared Jews to the Ku Klux Klan and claimed they were behind black slavery.

The artist, known as the godfather of grime, wrote on his personal Facebook page under his real name Richard Kylea Cowie, the BBC first reported.

Wiley claimed in one post that “certain people” viewed black people as “below them.”

He wrote: “Black people we have always been below them in their eyes this is what f****d me up in the head… Why do certain people from other races want us below them?”

“‘This is what they fear, that one day black people will be in control…  So they keep doing everything to make sure that doesn’t happen,” he wrote on his page, which is public.

In another post, he named British Jewish celebrities, including Lord Alan Sugar, comedian David Baddiel and BBC presenter Emma Barnett,  demanding they “come and talk to my face” after they spoke out against his previous antisemitic tirade which got him suspended by Twitter and Instagram.

“Who called the police? Are you from Golders Green? I am coming to sit down with you,” he wrote, referencing a north London neighborhood with a large Jewish community.

Barnett said on her radio show that as the daughter of Holocaust survivors, she was “deeply burned” by his antisemitic rhetoric.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on Sunday demanded a “full explanation” from Twitter and Instagram as to why they didn’t act immediately to remove Friday’s posts, prompting Wiley to take aim at her on his Facebook, writing, “Priti Patel, you wanna see me?”

In a tweet, Patel said the posts were antisemitic and “abhorrent” and “appalling.”

“They should not have been able to remain on Twitter and Instagram for so long and I have asked them for a full explanation. Social media companies must act much faster to remove such appalling hatred from their platforms,” she said.

While Twitter removed some of Wiley’s tweets with a note saying they violated its rules, other tweets were still up 12 hours after being posted. The social media giant later said Wiley’s account had been locked for seven days.

Facebook, which owns Instagram, said there was “no place for hate speech on Instagram,” and also suspended Wiley’s account for seven days.

The inaction prompted a 48-hour boycott of Twitter with the hashtag #NoSpaceForJewHate.

In several Tweets, Wiley stated he is the reason “Jews are rich.” He also said, “Jews make me sick.”

He wrote: “Jewish people are cowards, do something to me, I’m waiting,” and added that “Jewish people act rough but they hide behind the police.”

Another tweet read: “I don’t care about Hitler, I care about black people.”

In another, he compared the Jewish community to the Klu Klux Klan.

A change.org campaign has been circulated calling for Wiley’s MBE — the British order for outstanding contribution to community — to be revoked.

Facebook confirmed on Tuesday the musician had been banned from its platform, the Daily Mail reported.

“There is no place for hate speech on any of our platforms, including attacks against Jews,” a spokesman for the social media giant said. “We have deleted content that violates our policies from Wiley’s Facebook and Instagram profiles and have blocked access to them for seven days.”

“We’re continuing to investigate the situation,” the spokesman added.

Several of Wiley’s tweets were taken down and his Twitter account was temporarily suspended after he went on an anti-Semitic tirade on Friday. One tweet read: “I don’t care about Hitler, I care about black people”, and compared the Jewish community to the Klu Klux Klan. Most of the posts spread anti-Semitic tropes.

 

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