Spotify, SoundCloud and different tech platforms have labored to take away a brand new track from Ye that praises Adolf Hitler, however the track and its video have continued to proliferate on-line together with throughout X, the place it has racked up thousands and thousands of views.
On numerous mainstream and different tech platforms this week, Ye, previously often called Kanye West, has been in a position to share his newest track, titled “Heil Hitler,” together with its companion title, “WW3,” which equally glorifies Hitler, the architect of the Holocaust.
Whereas some platforms have taken steps to try to tug down the track, others have seemingly let it unfold freely.
The continued unfold of the track and the various approaches to moderation exemplify an more and more fractured setting on-line and on social media, the place some platforms have pulled again on their moderation practices in recent times, whereas others have tried to keep up increased requirements in relation to hate speech.
Elon Musk’s X is the place the track has discovered its greatest viewers.
On Thursday, Ye uploaded a video for the track on X, the place it remained up as of Friday night and acquired greater than 6.5 million views. No less than 12,000 customers and a handful of right-wing influencers rapidly shared the clip on their pages. Ye’s most up-to-date repost is of a video mixing historic clips of Hitler collectively along with his track as a backing observe. He additionally shared a video on X of influencer Andrew Tate — a self-described misogynist — enjoying the track in his automobile. That video has been seen over 3 million occasions.
Ye’s account is verified as a corporation on X, which means it could possibly be eligible for monetization and advertisements. It’s not clear if Ye’s account makes use of these options.
The proliferation of the track, regardless of its invocation of Hitler, is the most recent illustration of the ability that social media platforms have handed over to some extremely adopted celebrities and influencers, and their lack of ability or unwillingness to manage the unfold of some content material after it’s been printed. Whereas Ye didn’t seem to try to add the track to different social media platforms, different folks have reposted the video.
On Reddit, customers on a number of subreddits dedicated to Ye and different rappers uploaded variations of the track to the platform. On r/Kanye, which has 1.1 million members, some customers bemoaned Ye’s continued invocation of Hitler and Nazis, whereas others celebrated the track, posting memes and TikTok movies about it.
A Reddit spokesperson stated the platform would take away uploads of the track and posts celebrating its message: “Hate and antisemitism have completely no place on Reddit. We now have strict guidelines in opposition to hateful content material, together with antisemitic content material. Our inside security groups proactively implement these insurance policies throughout the platform by means of automated tooling and human evaluate. According to our sitewide guidelines, we’re eradicating the track and any celebration of its message.”
On Fb, NBC Information discovered over a dozen reuploads of the “Heil Hitler” music video, and on YouTube half a dozen reuploads of the track that had been seen a whole bunch of 1000’s of occasions. On TikTok, a handful of reuploads had been posted utilizing the hashtag #hh.
X, Meta, TikTok and YouTube all have hate speech or hateful conduct insurance policies that usually forbid speech concentrating on a selected group for his or her race, or hateful invocations of genocide. X and Meta didn’t reply to requests for remark. A YouTube spokesperson stated, “We eliminated the content material and can proceed to take down reuploads,” noting that accounts related to Ye are ineligible for monetization.
Ye was briefly in a position to add the track to the favored music streaming providers Spotify and SoundCloud.
The presence of the track on Spotify prompted a petition marketing campaign from the Anti-Defamation League calling for its elimination.
In a press release, Daniel Kelley, director of technique and operations on the ADL, stated: “Spotify has been principally radio silent to outreach from ADL for almost all of 2025, so we felt it was essential to activate our volunteer base to strain them to behave on the platform’s acknowledged insurance policies.”
Kelley stated Spotify didn’t reply to their outreach, however seems to have eliminated the track. “WW3,” which accommodates lyrics glorifying Nazis, continues to be up on the platform.
However some customers have circumvented Spotify’s elimination of the track, importing it to Spotify’s podcast part or importing re-recorded cowl variations of the track.
SoundCloud appeared to take away variations of the track linked to by Ye on his X account, however NBC Information situated 27 reuploads or remixed variations of the track on the platform.
Spotify and SoundCloud didn’t reply to requests for remark.
On Friday, Ye posted on X that he had discovered a brand new music streaming hub for his track referred to as Scrybe — linking to an internet site with hyperlinks to obtain pages for the app on Google’s and Apple’s app shops. The small music streaming app payments itself as catering to indie musicians, with the tagline, “Extra Cash for the Artist, Much less Cash for the Fan.”
On the app, Ye’s songs are all labeled as trending. Scrybe didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Replace Could 10, 2025 8:39 PM: This text was up to date to incorporate a press release from Reddit.
