Wiley apologises for anti-Semitic rants and says he’s ‘not racist’

Wiley has apologised for his anti-Semitic Twitter rants after he was banned from the site.

The rapper, whose real name is Richard Cowie, shared a series of anti-Jewish posts on Twitter starting on Friday, and was initially given a temporary ban, with the majority of his tweets remaining visible.

In an interview with Sky News he has now apologised and said he isn’t racist.

He said: “I just want to apologise for generalising and going outside of the people who I was talking to within the workspace and workplace I work in.

“My comments should not have been directed to all Jews or Jewish people.

“I want to apologise for generalising, and I want to apologise for comments that were looked at as anti-Semitic.”

In his apology he added he was “not racist” and the row was between him and his manager.

He said: “I’m not racist, you know. I’m a businessman.

“My thing should have stayed between me and my manager, I get that.”

His interview will air tonight at 7pm on Sky News.

During his rants Wiley compared Jewish people to the Ku Klux Klan and shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about power and wealth.

Twitter was widely criticised for allowing his tweets to remain up for hours.

Twitter has since apologised for being slow to act as it announced it had permanently suspended Wiley.

A company spokesman said: “Upon further investigation, our teams have permanently suspended the account in question for repeated violations of our hateful conduct policy.

“Let us be clear: hateful conduct has absolutely no place on our service and we strongly condemn anti-Semitism.

“We are sorry we did not move faster and are continuing to assess the situation internally. “