WASHINGTON — The rapper formerly known as Kanye West had his website taken offline Tuesday after it was changed to only selling a swastika shirt after airing a Super Bowl ad.
Visitors to the retail website for Ye’s apparel brand, Yeezy.com, saw error messages Tuesday that stated, “something went wrong” and “This store is unavailable.”
Shopify, an e-commerce platform, told multiple news outlets it took action and shut the site down.
“All merchants are responsible for following the rules of our platform. This merchant did not engage in authentic commerce practices and violated our terms, so we removed them from Shopify,” a statement from the company said. Shopify did not expand on which terms were violated.
Over the weekend, Ye aired a bizarre Super Bowl commercial in Los Angeles and select other markets that boosted traffic to his website.
According to Variety, before the ad aired the website featured various non-branded clothes like shirts, jackets and pants. However, shortly after the commercial aired the Shopify-powered store’s selection was replaced with just one item: A swastika shirt for $20 each.
The rapper has a long history of making antisemitic comments. He spent the last week posting hate-filled messages on X, formerly known as Twitter, in which he said he was a Nazi. His X account was deactivated on Monday, which a spokesperson told NBC News the rapper did himself.
In a social media post, the Anti-Defamation League said “There’s no excuse for this kind of behavior. Even worse, Kanye advertised his website during the Super Bowl, amplifying it beyond his already massive social media audience.”