The website for Ye's clothing brand Yeezy was shut down after his Super Bowl ad promoting his business led visitors to the site to see only a swastika t-shirt for sale.
Before Shopify, which hosted Yeezy, shut down the website, Ye had gone on an internet tirade making antisemitic statements that prompted celebrities like Friends star David Schwimmer to plead with Elon Musk to again ban the rapper from X (formerly Twitter).
Ye's X account was deactivated, reportedly of his own accord, after he made unhinged remarks praising Hitler, identifying as a Nazi, and calling for Republican President Donald Trump to free disgraced rapper Sean "Diddy" Combs from jail.
The Super Bowl ad, which Ye spent millions on, featured him in the dentist's chair flashing new diamond-encrusted teeth.
He explained:
"I spent all the money for the commercial on these new teeth so, once again, I had to shoot it on the iPhone."
The selfie video was flanked by a split phrase instructing viewers to "Go to Yeezy.com," which Ye mumbled at the end of the ad after uttering a succession of drawn-out "uhhhmmmm"s.
Here's a clip of the ad taken from a TV screen.
Viewers were flummoxed by the fact that money talks despite Ye's antisemitic ramblings.
While his bizarre commercial reached a wide audience of sports fans enjoying the match between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs, it was short-lived.
The website hawking the sole swastika t-shirt item for sale has now been shut down.
A Shopify spokesperson informed Variety:
“All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform."
"This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms, so we removed them from Shopify.”
Visitors to the site now see an error message indicating:
“Something went wrong. What happened? This store is unavailable.”
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The decision to yank Yeezy a full day after the Super Bowl ad aired wasn't fast enough for some people.
Shopify President Harley Finkelstein was asked why the Yeezy website was not pulled down immediately, and he explained:
"Good process creates good outcome…The moment we realized this was not actually a real commerce practice, they weren't actually engaging an authentic commerce, we pulled it down."
When asked about his reaction to the controversy, he said:
"It's disappointing. I'm a proud Jewish entrepreneur. I'm a proud Jewish community member…It's a big part of my identity, so I'm devastated by that."
Before Ye deactivated his X account, singer Charlie Puth took to his Instagram story and pleaded for the rapper to stop posting antisemitic statements.
“@ye The message you are sending out to the world is incredibly dangerous,” wrote the "Light Switch" singer.
He continued:
“Please man, I beg you to stop. You are selling a T-shirt with a Swastika on it, and MILLIONS of people are influenced by you. Please I BEG you to stop, PLEASE.”
David Schwimmer, who is Jewish, informed Musk of the dangers in allowing Ye to remain on X.
"We can’t stop a deranged bigot from spewing hate filled, ignorant bile… but we CAN stop giving him a megaphone, Mr. Musk," wrote the actor, adding:
"His sick hate speech results in REAL LIFE violence against Jews."
"Silence is complicity," Schwimmer told Musk. The tech billionaire had denied accusations that he gave the Nazi salute during Trump's inauguration celebration.
Following Schwimmer's plea on Saturday, Ye had already mentioned possibly leaving the platform after Musk unfollowed him.
“Elon unfollowed me so I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be on twitter / X If I’m taken off go to," Ye wrote.
On Sunday night, Ye's final post according to screenshots on X started with, "I'm logging out of Twitter."
He continued:
“I appreciate Elon [Musk] for allowing me to vent. It has been very cathartic to use the world as a sounding board. It was like an Ayahuasca trip."
"Love all of you who gave me your energy and attention. To we connect again…Good afternoon and goodnight," he concluded.
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