The website run by Ye, which had been selling shirts featuring a swastika, was offline Tuesday morning after the ecommerce platform it uses said the site had violated its rules.
Shopify said in a statement to NBC News: “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.”
The site redirected to a notice that said “this store is not available” Tuesday morning.
Shopify is a widely used ecommerce platform that a range of websites and businesses use to sell goods. The company did not say which of its rules the site had violated, but its terms of service state that it will act “to restrict products or activities that we deem unsafe, inappropriate, or offensive.”
Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, used a Super Bowl commercial Sunday night to boost traffic to his website, which over the weekend began selling white T-shirts featuring a black swastika, the symbol of Nazi Germany and a widely recognized symbol of antisemitic hatred.
Ye has in recent days been posting antisemitic message on X, including claims that he is a Nazi, although his account was deactivated Monday.
NBC News asked Ye’s spokesperson for reaction to the decision by Shopify, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
In a statement Monday, spokesperson Milo Yiannopoulos said: “Ye is an intergenerational artist and icon who continues to redefine the limits of creativity and free expression. He has deactivated his X account for the time being.”
One of the most feted and successful figures in hop-hip, Ye had built up a fashion brand, Yeezy, which began as a collaboration with Adidas — but the German sportswear giant cut ties with him in 2022 over his antisemitic remarks.
Cloudflare, the company that provides hosting for the website, and GoDaddy, the domain registry company that is listed in connection with the website, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
