Jewish users of Twitter and their allies on Monday began a 48-hour boycott of the social media giant to protest its inaction over anti-Semitic posts.
The boycott, which uses the hashtag #NoSafeSpaceForJewHate, was launched in response to Twitter's failure to remove posts by British rapper Wiley after he went on a two-day tirade against Jews.
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The Twitter boycott campaign launched Jewish users and allies on Monday
(Photo: Screenshot)
The boycott began at 9am UK time (GMT+1). It has been adopted by Jews and Jewish groups all over the world, and by many British media personalities, politicians from across the spectrum, academics, publicists and activists.
Wiley's posts remained up despite multiple requests to take down the remarks - which included a coded call for violence against Jews - and ban the rapper from the site completely.
Twitter eventually banned the rapper for seven days after the two-day tirade on Friday and Saturday. He was also dropped by his management company after he posted the comments, which called Jews "cowards" and "snakes," among other things.
Some of the racist posts were removed, but many still remain active. Once his week-long ban is over, the rapper can return to his account, which has almost half a million followers.
Instagram, the where Wiley also posted anti-Semitic content, also handed the rapper a seven-day ban.
London's Metropolitan Police said they had received a number of complaints and are investigating the rapper's racist comments.
"The Met takes all reports of anti-Semitism extremely seriously," police said. "The relevant material is being assessed."
British Home Secretary Priti Patel demanded a "full explanation" from Twitter and Instagram as to why it took so long for them to remove the "abhorrent" posts.
The 41-year-old artist, whose real name is Richard Cowie, is known as the "Godfather of Grime."
He received an MBE award for services to music in 2018.
Wiley's manager, John Woolf, said the A-List Management group had "cut all ties" with the musician following posts on Twitter and Instagram.
"Following Wiley's antisemitic tweets today we at @A_ListMGMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for antisemitism," Woolf said on Twitter on Saturday.
British Jews have for several years warned against the rise of anti-Semitism in the country, in particular on the left following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as UK Labour Party leader.
Corbyn, who rejected allegations of institutionalized anti-Semitism in the party under his leadership, was replaced in April by Sir Keir Starmer after an historic election defeat.
Starmer immediately pledged to make stamping out anti-Jewish sentiment in Labour his first priority.
The Associated Press contributed to this report