Undeterred by one social media ban, Azealia Banks used Instagram to criticise Twitter for suspending her days after she embarked on a “racist” and “homophobic” rant at Zayn Malik.
The 24-year-old rapper launched a vitriolic tirade at Malik on Tuesday evening which continued into Wednesday morning after suggesting Malik had been influenced by her work in his latest video.
Her comments were met by calls for Banks’ Twitter account to be suspended and on Thursday that happened.
Banks believed two tweets from the One Direction singer were aimed at her and responded with racial slurs. She also targeted 14-year-old Disney actress Skai Jackson after she told Banks to "simmer down".
Banks reacted to her suspension on Instagram, accusing Twitter of not suspending her until she said “whiteness is a mental illness”, not when she targeted Malik with racist insults.
“REALISE that I insulted Indians, Pakistani, black folk… And my Twitter didn’t get suspended until I said “WHITENESS IS A MENTAL ILLNESS’ you guys need to pay the f*ck attention to what is happening here,” she wrote.
Banks also shared a number of screenshots of messages of support from fans before reassuring that a planned gig in Istanbul this weekend will still go ahead, unlike her planned headline appearance at a London festival in June which was cancelled by organisers following the rant.
Banks issued an apology on Wednesday to anybody who “took offence” to her tweets and made it clear the apology was directed at “everyone except the targets of my tirade”.
A spokesperson for Twitter said they do not comment on individual accounts for privacy and security reasons.
Twitter’s policy guidelines state that an account may be suspended “if it has been reported to us as violating our rules surrounding abuse”.
