Twitter took 30 minutes to remove Kanye West's tweet doxxing a top magazine editor

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Twitter took 30 minutes to remove Kanye West's tweet doxxing a top magazine editor
Kanye West.REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
  • On Wednesday, Kanye West tweeted out the phone number belonging to a top editor at Forbes — an action known as "doxxing" that violates Twitter policies.
  • The tweet — which called the editor a "white supremacist" and invited West's fans to call him — was up for 30 minutes and garnered more than 17,000 retweets before it was removed.
  • West's longshot presidential campaign means that he is now the second US presidential candidate, after Donald Trump, to have a social media post taken down for violating policies.
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A Twitter post from Kanye West has been removed after West tweeted out the phone number belonging to a top magazine editor.

The act of publishing someone else's private information without permission — known as doxxing — is considered a violation of Twitter's policies. The tweet was public for nearly 30 minutes Wednesday afternoon before it was removed for violating Twitter rules.

Before the tweet was removed, a Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider the tweet has been "escalated" to the company's moderation team for "review."

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The tweet in question appears to show the phone number for Forbes' chief content officer. West encourages his fans to "call a white supremacist," and provides the iPhone contact information belonging to a "Randall Forbes."

Twitter took 30 minutes to remove Kanye West's tweet doxxing a top magazine editor
Kanye West/Twitter

The tweet garnered more than 17,000 retweets before it was taken down just before 2 p.m.

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When reached for comment, Forbes' communications chief Matthew Hutchison told Business Insider the company has "a lot of empathy" for West, and is hoping he's able to get "all the help he deserves."

Under Twitter's private information policy, users who violate this rule the first time are required to remove the offensive tweet, and will be "temporarily" unable to tweet from their account. After the first offense, Twitter says it will permanently suspend the rule-breaking user.

Offline, West has been busy staging his longshot bid to become President of the US, a campaign that has cost him nearly $6 million of his own money in just the first month. Twitter's actions against West makes the rapper the second-ever US presidential candidate — behind Donald Trump — to have a social media post removed for rule violations, as noted by political reporter Ben Jacobs on Twitter.

Yet this tweet from West is only one of dozens he posted online Wednesday afternoon. West also shared photos of pages from his recording contract with a major music label, as well as a video appearing to show someone urinating on a Grammy music award.

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