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Wiley Banned on Twitter & Investigated Over Anti-Semitic Tweets

Wiley was temporarily banned from Twitter and is now being investigated by police after he posted antisemitic comments on Twitter and Instagram last week, The Guardian reports.

The Grime artist has also been dropped by his management company. His manager, John Woolf took to Twitter the day after Wiley’s racist tirade to announce “@A_ListMGMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for antisemitism.”

The Metropolitan police are also looking into the tweets and Wiley is facing a police investigation. A spokesperson told the Guardian: “We have received a number of reports relating to alleged antisemitic tweets posted on social media. The Met takes all reports of antisemitism extremely seriously. The relevant material is being assessed.”

British interior minister Priti Patel has criticized Twitter for failing to remove the tweets sooner. “The anti-Semitic posts from Wiley are abhorrent,” Patel said on Twitter. “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.”

Many of the tweets, where Wiley suggests Jews continued the slave trade by systematically exploiting Black artists in the music industry, have been deleted. His account has not been banned from the platform.

Many prominent figures have condemned Wiley’s comments. British model and activist Munroe Bergdorf called for greater unity between marginalized people and declared her solidarity with the Jewish community.

Meanwhile, Instagram users have taken a 48-hour break from the platform to protest its slow response in deleting Wiley’s comments.

In 2017, Wiley was made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for services to music.