Kanye West has made his return to Instagram eight months after he deactivated his account.
The rapper reactivated his IG profile in the early hours of Sunday (December 17). As of this writing, there are no posts and Ye is only following one person — Justin Laboy — compared to his nearly 19 million followers.
It’s been speculated that Kanye West reactivated his account on the photo-sharing platform to promote his upcoming joint album with Ty Dolla $ign.
Check it out below.
Kanye West reactivates Instagram account 8 months after leaving the platform https://t.co/3Yh0bOWXIApic.twitter.com/niKuP5ZD9c
— HipHopDX (@HipHopDX) December 17, 2023
Back in April, Ye decided to step away from one of his social media channels, deactivating his Instagram without much of an explanation as to why.
On April 18, he posted a photo to Instagram showing the form one has to fill out to cancel an account on the platform. Yeezy appeared to be one click away from temporarily deactivating his account.
Minutes later, he followed through with his departure, with the link to Kanye’s IG showing as broken.
He previously deactivated his IG in October 2018 and then again in September 2020 in response to the backlash to his Saturday Night Live performance and support for Donald Trump, demonstrated by the controversial rapper donning a red MAGA hat.
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More recently, Kanye was suspended by Instagram following his antisemitic remarks in October 2022 and then suspended from Twitter by his friend Elon Musk in December 2022 after posting an image that included a Swastika.
At the time, the Chicago-bred rapper seemed to want to lay low and spend time with his wife, Bianca Censori, as he’s reportedly shut down plans for a 2024 presidential run, according to The Daily Beast.
“After once working together to elect West — or at least get him more attention through media appearances on fringe outlets like InfoWars — West campaign staffers like Fuentes, Jan. 6 rally organizer Ali Alexander, and British provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos have turned on one another,” the outlet wrote.
This infighting has reportedly turned the DONDA rapper off from taking the campaign further, with documentary filmmakers and advisers alike put off from the idea altogether — and West is fine with that, too.
“Right now, I am living my life — like I’m concentrating on the school, The Donda Academy, and my new wife, and my kids, and that’s it,” West told documentary filmmaker Adam Camacho, who was hired to document the presidential campaign. “I just want to be left alone.”
