Update 08/05/2020 2:20am:
According to reports, Brooklyn emcee Talib Kweli has been permanently banned from Twitter just a week after the rapper made his exit from the social media platform following accusations of harassment. A spokesperson from Twitter told the feminist publication, Jezebel, that Talib was banned for "repeated violations," culminating in his alleged harassment campaign of a woman named Maya A. Moody.
"[Talib Kweli’s] account has been permanently suspended after repeated violations of the Twitter rules," said the spokesperson. "Twitter's purpose is to serve the public conversation. Violence, harassment, and other similar types of behavior discourage people from expressing themselves and ultimately diminish the value of global public conversation. Our rules are to ensure all people can participate in the public conversation freely and safely."
Original 07/25/2020 1:31pm:
According to reports, Talib Kweli is no longer active on Twitter, as the rapper’s handle @TalibKweli leads to a page that says, “This account doesn’t exist.”
The reasoning behind the rapper’s move allegedly stems from an incident that involved a 24-year-old Twitter user named Maya Moody, who the rapper allegedly harassed for weeks after she replied to a list of Black rappers who married Black women. The list reportedly pointed out that a majority of the men on the list married light-skinned women.
Following that, Kweli allegedly sent hundreds of tweets to Moody, and followers of the rapper reportedly sent death threats to the young woman according to a statement she made via Twitter.
Kweli took to Instagram to address why he’s no longer on Twitter, saying, “It's official. I have officially left @twitter for the greener pastures of @patreon which is membership fee-based. Now, most of my exchanges will always be with real fans who invest in me. I spent 11 years there, all great times.. I exposed a lot of bigots and trolls and made a lot of wonderful friends.” The rapper noted his exchanges with real fans would be through Patreon. Despite Kweli’s statement, many are speculating the rapper’s account was suspended as a result of the alleged harassment.
Source: vulture.com
