Elon Musk welcomes Kanye West 'back to Twitter' after Instagram places a restriction on the rapper's account for violations

Brad Barket/Getty Images for Fast Company (left) / Britta Pedersen-Pool/Getty Images (right)

• Elon Musk welcomed Kanye West "back to Twitter" Saturday after Instagram placed a restriction on his account. 
• West posted a photo throwing shade at Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, with whom Musk often clashes.
• Meta told Insider that West violated Instagram's policies, but declined to specify which one. 

Tesla CEO Elon Musk welcomed Kanye West "back to Twitter" after the rapper's Instagram was placed under restriction Saturday, prompting him to switch social platforms and tweet for the first time since 2020. 

West posted a photo showing him alongside Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with a caption that reads, in part: "Look at this Mark. How you gone kick me off Instagram."

Musk tweeted in reply, "welcome back to Twitter, my friend!"

Instagram, which is part of Meta, confirmed to Insider that it placed a restriction on West's account, though it did not provide details, and deleted some of his content violating the app's policies. Accounts that repeatedly break the platform's community guidelines may be temporarily restricted from posting, commenting, or sending direct messages, the spokesperson added. Meta declined to comment on which posts were deleted from West's account, or which policy he violated. 

Musk, who is currently in talks to buy Twitter, has been friends with West since at least 2011. The billionaire tech mogul has called the artist his biggest inspiration and praised his work. Musk and Zuckerberg, on the other hand, have a more tenuous relationship. 

The two tech CEOs have butted heads in the past, a feud that first began in 2016 after a SpaceX rocket explosion destroyed a Facebook satellite nearby. Musk is a cofounder and the CEO of SpaceX.

In April, Musk compared Zuckerberg to a monarch, commenting that the Facebook founder owns the majority of Meta shares, a strong-hold Musk said he would personally avoid if he bought Twitter. 

Twitter screenshot

Both West and Musk are known for their compulsive social media habits, though on different platforms. West's Instagram account was most recently suspended in March after attacking Kim Kardashian, Trevor Noah, and Pete Davidson in posts that violated the app's harassment policy. 

On Friday, West posted what he claims are screenshots of "abbreviated" texts between him and creative director of the fashion label Supreme, Tremaine Emory, discussing fashion designer Virgil Abloh, who died of cancer last year.

It is not clear which recent post led to his account's restriction.