Kanye West Defended Scandal-Hit Balenciaga Before Twitter Suspension

Kanye West pledged his life-long allegiance to Balenciaga in a post that was shared shortly before his Twitter account was suspended on Thursday.

Balenciaga has faced backlash over the past several days for images shown on its website that included toddlers holding the company's teddy bear handbags. The stuffed toys appeared to be dressed in bondage gear, including fishnet shirts and studded leather harnesses and collars.

A number of public figures spoke out against the images. West's ex-wife Kim Kardashian, who is a Balenciaga brand ambassador, said that she was "disgusted" and "shaken" by the images and was "re-evaluating" her relationship with the company.

Balenciaga apologized for the campaign and pulled the images, which some on social media had described as "child porn."

After previously criticizing celebrities for not speaking out on the Balenciaga scandal, West—who has legally changed his name to Ye—defended the beleaguered fashion brand, which recently ended its business relationship with the star over his antisemitic comments.

"I stand by Balenciaga and denounce all witch hunts and I cancel cancel culture. Jesus is King. Ending trafficking doesn't start or end with a fashion campaign for Christ Sake," the rapper wrote in archived tweets seen by Newsweek.

"Never turn our backs [on] Demna and the Balenciaga family for life," he said in a follow-up tweet that featured a photo of himself dressed in a bulky black ensemble. "Cancel cancel culture. Jesus please heal."

Earlier on Thursday, West posted what appeared to be a text message exchange with Balenciaga's creative director, Demna Gvasalia, who he has collaborated with on a number of projects over the years.

The screenshot purported to show Gvasalia asking West to help "stop Demna hate," prompting the musician to respond: "Love cures everything, Love Demna."

"God loves Balenciaga," West later tweeted. "Love is the answer, Jesus is the answer. Praying for all of the innocent artist and beautiful humans who make clothing that had nothing to do with the [ad campaign]. People's grandmothers work [there] for Christ sake."

Instead of turning against Balenciaga, West stated that pornography should be expunged from social media platforms as a way to end the trafficking of children.

"Remove any and all forms of pornography from Twitter and every platform," he stated. "Pornography is the product of [pedophilia]. When grown men look at porn they are watching someone's daughter relive trauma for money."

"The use of Porn destroyed my family but Jesus will heal everything," added West, who has spoken in the past of his own addiction to pornography.

West's tweets stand in contrast to comments he made at the height of the backlash against Balenciaga in November, when he said the lack of public features speaking out proved that "all celebrities are controlled."

"You don't see no celebrities talking about the Balenciaga situation, right?" West told photographers in Los Angeles. "So that just shows you: All of these celebrities out here—don't let them influence you in any way, because they're controlled by the people who really influence the world."

On Thursday, the musician shared the image of the swastika over the Star of David—a symbol of Judaism—with the caption: "YE24 LOVE EVERYONE." The tweet was removed shortly afterward.

West then wrote: "Let's always remember this as my final tweet," alongside an unflattering image of Twitter CEO Elon Musk on a yacht.

Musk reportedly replied: "That is fine," to the picture of him on a boat, but wrote: "This is not," in response to the deleted swastika tweet.

The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO later confirmed to a fellow Twitter user that he had suspended West's account for "incitement to violence."

Also on Thursday, West faced further backlash when he defended the Adolf Hitler and Nazis during an appearance on Alex Jones' Infowars.

West returned to Twitter in November after he was previously suspended in October for posting antisemitic remarks.