WILEY - OUSTED TROLL OF THE MONTH
The Troll of the Month is an incident we choose every month to expose racist and anti-religious haters and to show positive outcomes in the fight against intolerance in Europe.
British grime artist Wiley (real name Richard Cowie) posted a series of antisemitic tweet on July 24th. In his tweets, broadcasted to nearly half a million followers, Wiley claimed that Jewish people control business, an antisemitic trope which has been used to catastrophic results in the past, and compared Jewish people to the Ku Klux Klan: “There are 2 sets of people who nobody has really wanted to challenge #Jewish & #KKK but being in business for 20 years you start to understand [sic] why … Red Necks Are the KKK and Jewish people are the Law...Work that out.” He continued: “If you work for a company owned by 2 Jewish men and you challenge the Jewish community in anyway of course you will get fired.”
He further tweeted: “Listen to me Jewish community Israel is not your country I’m sorry … The Star of David that’s our ting … Some people have gotten too comfortable on lands that don’t belong to them.” Wiley continued to tweet a long string of claims and rants including the COVID-19 pandemic, stating: “Fuck the mask and virus it’s all bullshit … it’s a fucking lie.”
Danny Stone, chief executive of the Antisemitism Policy Trust commented on Wiley’s comparing between the KKK and Jewish people: “The parallel is offensive & the inference is antisemitic. Jews and money. Dress it up however you like.”
After Wiley’s initial antisemitic tweets on Friday the 24th, he was banned from posting on Twitter for a few hours. However, on the morning of the 25th he tweeted that he was “back in action” and then continued posting antisemitic content. A few hours later he posted a screenshot on Instagram showing that he had been blocked from posting on Twitter for 7 days.
Many have criticised Twitter for not taking appropriate action on the case. While some of the Tweets were removed, several of Wiley’s posts were still visible on his account despite his being blocked. Some of this content still up on Twitter included Wiley referring to Jewish people as “cowards” and “snakes”. Wiley’s musician’s manager, John Woolf, wrote on Twitter on Saturday morning: “Following Wiley’s antisemitic tweets today we at A-ListMGMT have cut all ties with him. There is no place in society for antisemitism.”
The police are currently investigating the matter.