Kanye West has publicly shown his support for Balenciaga, amid major backlash against the brand.
The luxury fashion house’s latest campaign, which has since been taken down, included images of young children holding teddy bears dressed in bondage clothing.
Paperwork about a Supreme Court ruling on child pornography was identified in one of the images from the controversial campaign, and Balenciaga are now suing the production company behind it for $25 million in damages.
the brand "Balenciaga" just did a uh….. interesting… photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about 'virtual child porn'
normal stuff pic.twitter.com/zjMN5WhZ0s
— shoe (@shoe0nhead) November 21, 2022
Taking to Twitter amid the controversy, Kanye wrote on Thursday: “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.”
In another tweet, the rapper wrote: “Never turn our backs Demna and the Balenciaga family for life Cancel cancel culture Jesus please heal.”
Earlier in the day, the Chicago native shared a text exchange with Balenciaga’s creative director Demna Gvasalia, whom he’s worked closely with on multiple projects for years.
In the alleged texts, Denma begged Ye to ask his fans to “stop Denma hate,” to which he responded with “Love cures everything, Love Denma.”
Kanye also tweeted: “God loves Balenciaga 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 adds [sic] Peoples grandmothers work their [sic] for Christ sake.”
The 45-year-old said that cancelling Balenciaga was not the way to end the sex trafficking of children.
Instead, the father-of-four asked to “remove any and all forms of pornography from Twitter and every platform Pornography is the product of pediphilia [sic] When grown men look at porn they are watching someone’s daughter relive trauma for money.”
He added: “The use of Porn destroyed my family but Jesus will heal everything.”
Amid his Twitter rant, Kanye also posted a logo that appeared to be a mix of the Star of David and a Swastika.
The tweet was deleted shortly after because it “violated Twitter rules.”
Twitter’s owner Elon Musk later confirmed that Kanye’s account had been suspended.
He tweeted: “He again violated our rule against incitement to violence. Account will be suspended.”
The suspension took place just hours after Kanye made controversial comments about Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in an interview with rightwing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Shielded behind a face mask, the father-of-four appeared alongside the white supremacist Nick Fuentes on InfoWars in an episode posted on Thursday.
The rapper said: “I see good things about Hitler… Every human being has something of value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler.”
After Jones replied, “The Nazis were thugs,” Kanye said, “But they did good things too. We gotta stop dissing the Nazis all the time.”
Happening now: Kanye West tells Alex Jones that he “sees good things about Hitler also” pic.twitter.com/sjqF4Fnunb
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) December 1, 2022
The 45-year-old also declared: “I love Jewish people. But I also love Nazis.”
It comes just weeks after Kanye’s Twitter and Instagram accounts were restricted after he tweeted an anti-Semitic message.
In the since-deleted post, the Yeezy founder wrote that he was “sleepy” but planned “to go death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE” when he woke up.
He continued: “The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew. Also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
