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A TV commercial that aired during the Super Bowl in several major cities directed viewers to a website that, as of Monday, was selling only one item: a T-shirt emblazoned with nothing but a swastika.
The ad, which aired in major local TV markets including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Atlanta, featured what appeared to be a selfie video of the rapper and producer Kanye West, known as Ye, in a dentist's chair with a mouth full of bejeweled teeth. After explaining that he spent all the money for the commercial on the teeth and had to shoot the ad with an iPhone, he concluded cryptically, "Go to Yeezy.com."
The site, which is powered by the e-commerce platform Shopify, initially offered for sale an array of clothing items from Ye's "Yeezy" brand. But before long, the T-shirt sporting the infamous Nazi emblem was the only item for sale. The cost: $20.
The site was taken down Tuesday morning, replaced with a message saying, "This store is unavailable." Shopify did not respond to a request for comment.
The ad didn't break the law, but it did allow the rapper to push into what was long considered taboo territory during one of the biggest television events of the year.
The clear prelude to that push has been the relaxation of content moderation on the internet, which many on the right have hailed as a victory over censorship.
In October 2022, Ye's Twitter and Instagram accounts were restricted after he posted overtly antisemitic messages. Later that month, Adidas dropped him as a business partner, and it looked as though he might sink from public view.
But that was before Elon Musk bought Twitter and a Republican-led campaign against online content moderation, followed by President Donald Trump's election victory, prompted others to reevaluate their speech policies.
The restrictions on Ye's Twitter and Instagram accounts were soon lifted, only for new owner Musk to suspend him again in December after Ye tweeted an image of a swastika and praised Adolf Hitler and Nazis on right-wing conspiracist Alex Jones' Infowars show. Musk's X reinstated Ye in July 2023, and Ye has periodically resurfaced on Instagram as well.
Musk reinstated Jones later in 2023, and openly Nazi imagery and propaganda have proliferated on X under his watch. Musk has also dabbled in antisemitic tropes on his own account, and last month he dismissed criticism for a Nazi-esque salute he made during a speech after Trump's inauguration.
Ye had unleashed a fresh barrage of antisemitism on X in the days leading to the Super Bowl.
On Friday morning, the rapper posted a series of anti-Jewish comments to his more than 30 million X followers, including "I love Hitler" and "I'm a Nazi," drawing criticism from the Anti-Defamation League and others. Later that day, Musk replied to a conservative X user who complained that Ye was also posting pornography on the site, saying "his account is now classified as NSFW."
Musk did not address Ye's pro-Hitler posts, and Ye's account remained active on X until he appeared to deactivate it himself late Sunday. He thanked Musk in a final post, saying, "I appreciate Elon for allowing me to vent."
Other online platforms have also relaxed or rolled back rules around hate speech in the past year.
Those include Shopify, which recently weathered criticism for hosting other antisemitic merchandise. Bloomberg reported in November that the Canadian online retail platform had removed language from its policies prohibiting "hateful content" earlier last year.
Yeezy.com remained active throughout the day Monday, allowing users to place orders for the swastika T-shirts through Shopify's Shop app.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in January that the social media giant would relax some rules around hate speech on its platforms, citing a "cultural tipping point" exemplified by Trump's election. However, the company's policies still prohibit "direct attacks" against people based on certain characteristics, including their religion.
Ye's Instagram account appeared to be active as of Monday, though it showed no posts. Meta did not respond to a request for comment.
The tolerance of Ye set the stage for him to have Super Bowl ads approved in some of the nation's largest television markets - and hawk swastika shirts on a major e-commerce platform.
Fox, which aired the Super Bowl, did not respond to requests for comment about the ad. A person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment, said the ad ran locally on Fox affiliates in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta, which are all owned and operated by Fox. Social media posts from users in other cities indicated that it also aired on some Fox affiliates owned by other companies.
The person said the ads were likely approved because the commercial itself did not contain offensive content, and because a review of Yeezy.com before the Super Bowl did not turn up any problematic merchandise. Social media posts from viewers suggest the swastika shirt was available on the site alongside other merchandise within a few hours of the Super Bowl. By Monday, all the merchandise except the swastika shirt had disappeared.
The ad is unlikely to violate any laws, First Amendment experts said.
Super Bowl content has landed broadcasters in trouble with the Federal Communications Commission in the past - most notably after the 2004 halftime show included a glimpse of singer Janet Jackson's nipple. And Trump's new FCC chairman, Brendan Carr, has signaled an interest in scrutinizing broadcasters, including over political content. (Carr did not respond to a request for comment.)
But the law in this case is straightforward, said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, a longtime communications lawyer: "The FCC has no jurisdiction over this." Selling a T-shirt with a swastika on it is protected expression under the First Amendment, he added, and "there's just nothing I can see here that would give the FCC jurisdiction over the sale of an advertisement."
John Bergmayer, legal director at the nonprofit Public Knowledge, agreed.
"Broadcasters do have to abide by indecency rules and the public standard," he said. But questions of broadcaster liability would likely only come into play if the offensive content were in the ad itself, he added - not simply on a website that the ad mentioned, especially if the website was updated after the ad aired.
"Law aside, perhaps some common sense and a quick check of Kanye's X feed would suggest it would have been better for Fox to steer clear," he added.
In other words, the reason we generally haven't seen Super Bowl ads hawking swastika shirts in the past isn't because of laws, but because of norms and market forces.
The site's disappearance on Tuesday morning suggests there may yet be limits to the free speech ethos that tech companies have lately embraced. On the other hand, the public silence from Shopify, X and Fox suggest they do not feel a need to apologize to those offended, which marks a cultural shift in itself.
In a post on X on Monday, the ADL condemned Ye's "vile antisemitism," but didn't mention the platforms that hosted it. The organization declined to comment further.
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