Kanye's Social-Media Follower Count Increases Despite Antisemitic Posts

Kanye West's social-media follower count has increased, despite his antisemitic posts.

In a since-deleted tweet from Saturday, the 45-year-old rapper—who legally changed his name to Ye—wrote that he was "going death con 3 on Jewish people," adding, "You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda."

He also shared a screenshot of a text conversation with Diddy via Instagram on Friday in which he accused the rapper—real name Sean Combs—of being controlled by Jewish people.

According to Social Blade, a website that tracks social-media statistics, Ye's Twitter and Instagram followers have gone up since posting the messages.

On Saturday, the "Stronger" artist saw an increase of 180,925 Twitter followers, compared to Friday's of 18,772, Thursday's of 13,836 and Wednesday's of just 3,476.

On Instagram, the dad of four—who shares kids North, Saint, Chicago and Psalm with former wife Kim Kardashian, 41—saw a big spike with 67,698 new followers on Friday. In the days leading up to the post about Diddy, West gained merely 5,347 followers and 19,694 followers.

Comedian David Baddiel told Newsweek, though, that the overall reaction to West's tweet, specifically, has been "heartening."

"My position as the writer of Jews Don't Count is that, in general, the progressive community don't see offense against Jews as worthy of reaction to quite the same level as that against other minorities, and that is partly because of a notion—exampled in Kanye's tweet—that Jews are powerful and privileged and not in need of the protections afforded other minorities in the modern world of identity politics," the 58-year-old said.

"Kanye's tweet was standard in that he clearly saw himself not as being racist but punching up, as people often do attacking Jews, with talk of global agendas and trying to control, etc."

Baddiel added, however, that "the dial is shifting on this a bit," noting he "was cheered that many people, including Black Twitter, weighed in against him in a way that was more reactive against antisemitism than perhaps used to be the case."

Celebrities have also spoken out against the Atlanta, Georgia native.

During an appearance on the Today show on Monday, actress Jamie Lee Curtis, 63, whose father, Tony, was the son of Hungarian-Jewish emigrants, said she "burst into tears" after reading West's tweet.

"I mean, it's bad enough that fascism is on the rise around the world," she told host Hoda Kotb. "But on Twitter, on a portal, to pour that in? As if Jewish people haven't had it hard enough?"

Comedian Sarah Silverman, 51, tweeted, "Kanye threatened the Jews yesterday on Twitter and it's not even trending. Why do mostly only Jews speak up against Jewish hate? The silence is so loud."

Maria Shriver, 66, agreed, adding via her own Twitter account: "We all need to get onto it. Those kind of threats and that kind of language need to be condemned by all sides and all faiths. We should never get over something like this."

West has not spoken out about the backlash.