Twitter didn’t lock Nicki Minaj’s account amid brewing backlash over vaccine tweets

Say what you’ll about Nicki Minaj: The rapper is aware of how you can fire up controversy.

Simply name her Miss Info Barbie relating to COVID-19 vaccines.

Minaj’s viral vaccine-hesitancy tweets this week — primarily her cringe-worthy quotation of an anecdotal, friend-of-a-cousin expertise with swollen testicles — made her the subject of cable information exhibits and Twitter memes and the punchline for loads of late-night jokes.

Even Trinidadian TV coated it, with one news anchor ridiculing the story about her cousin’s buddy’s “flat tire.”

The tweets additionally earned her a whole lot of critics, getting the eye of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in addition to Dr. Anthony Fauci. The main U.S. coronavirus knowledgeable swiftly debunked the notion that the vaccine impacts the reproductive system.

Minaj claimed that the brewing backlash additionally prompted Twitter to lock her account Wednesday afternoon, so she continued her ideas on her Instagram Tales, writing that she might now not tweet and was in “Twitter jail” as a result of “they didn’t like what I used to be saying.”

The social-media platform, nonetheless, disputes that.

“Twitter didn’t take any enforcement motion on the account referenced,” a spokesperson for the corporate mentioned in an e-mail to The Occasions on Wednesday.

It needs to be famous that Minaj mentioned she would seemingly get vaccinated to go on tour, and she or he really helpful the pictures to anybody who wanted a jab to maintain their job.

Actually, her hesitancy apparently had little to do with her Trinidadian cousin’s friend’s purported side effects, however fairly along with her personal COVID-19 expertise. She mentioned she contracted the illness, which pressured her to keep away from her younger son, and doesn’t need to repeat that brutal expertise.

Regardless of her presumptive pure immunity, she mentioned she wished to do her analysis earlier than getting inoculated.

Sadly, that hasn’t been the takeaway from her viral Twitter thread; as a substitute, it was her citizen-researcher stance and her weird friend-of-a-cousin anecdote.

Monday’s tweet to her greater than 22 million followers has prompted medical specialists to weigh in on the vaccine conspiracy idea to debunk disinformation by folks with enormous social media followings.

A rep for Minaj didn’t instantly reply to The Occasions’ request for remark.

Responding Tuesday to a query from CNN’s Jake Tapper about whether or not there was a hyperlink between the three vaccines accepted within the U.S. — Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson — and reproductive points in males or ladies, Fauci mentioned, “The reply to that, Jake, is a powerful no.

“There’s no proof that it occurs, neither is there any mechanistic purpose to think about that it will occur,” added the director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Illnesses.

“I’m not blaming her for something,” Fauci continued after bemoaning COVID-19 misinformation on social media, “however she needs to be considering twice about propagating info that basically has no foundation.”

CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta mentioned lots of people have “concomitant points” — well being considerations which may pop up across the similar time as a vaccination however don’t have anything to do with the pictures. “Vaccines inflicting swollen testicles, that’s not a factor,” he mentioned.

“Nicki Minaj says she needs to do her analysis — there’s loads of analysis on the market. The journal of the American Medical Assn. appeared particularly at fertility points and didn’t discover fertility points,” mentioned Gupta, who famous that impotence and infertility have been unfounded fears because the vaccines have been rolled out. “I respect her eager to do the analysis. It’s on the market. I want her cousin’s buddy effectively, however that’s not associated to the [COVID-19] vaccine.”

Again on Twitter, Minaj stored firing away. She offered a tongue-in-cheek replace Tuesday concerning the cousin who unexpectedly discovered himself within the highlight.

“My #cousin who has #TheFriend simply texted me telling me to name him. *Bites Nails*,” she wrote. “Ugh! You idiots!!! If he noticed this on the information it’s all of your fault!!! It was speculated to be a secret …. If both of them ask, u ain’t heard it from me. Okay? *stares @ textual content.”

The Grammy-nominated rap star additionally attacked MSNBC’s Joy Reid with a racist slur for scolding her about her vaccine skepticism. Reid was disillusioned that Minaj was utilizing her hefty platform “to encourage our neighborhood to not defend themselves and save their lives.”

“My God, sister, you are able to do higher than that. You bought that platform — it’s a blessing that you just obtained that,” Reid mentioned on her present, “The ReidOut.” “The folks take heed to you — and so they take heed to you greater than they take heed to me.”

The rapper responded with the slur and referred to as Reid a homophobic liar, pulling up receipts of Reid’s 2018 running a blog scandal. “I suppose I can be part of within the reindeer video games too proper? Ppl can go on television & lie on me, I can report on them, too proper?” Minaj tweeted. “Doesn’t need to be truths. It may be half truths.”

Then, the hosts of the influential morning radio present “The Breakfast Membership” referred to as out Reid and reminded her that Minaj did ultimately say she would get vaccinated. (However keep in mind, that hasn’t been the takeaway in all of this.)

Minaj additionally discovered unlikely allies amongst conservatives: Fox Information’ Tucker Carlson came to her defense, as did pundit Candace Owens. However when Minaj’s followers referred to as her out for appreciating their assist by retweeting Carlson’s phase, Minaj wasn’t having it.

In the meantime, throughout the pond, polarizing British journalist Piers Morgan welcomed the Minaj breaking-news narrative as addressed by England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty.

“Professor Whitty beefing with the ghastly @NICKIMINAJ (one of many rudest little madams I’ve ever met) just isn’t the breaking information that I anticipated right this moment – but it surely’s most welcome. She’s peddling lies that can value lives,” Morgan tweeted.

“Sir I’ve by no means met you. I do know… all of us look alike,” Minaj tweeted in response. “‘Rudest little madam’. I prefer it. Has a particular ring to it. Thanks Pierce. Love the accent. I’d love to come back chat. Scones. Tea. Clown nostril & large crimson footwear for you. Lmk babe,” she wrote. She then referred to as him out too and corrected his personal misinformation about their historical past with a choice, expletive-laden tweet. (Minaj has since up to date her Twitter bio to name herself “Rudest little madam.”)

However Morgan parried, tweeting that they’d certainly met, on “America’s Received Expertise,” and that every one British names should sound alike as a result of she obtained his mistaken.

Not surprisingly, Minaj’s declarations have been sensational fodder for the late-night circuit. Stephen Colbert spoofed her hit “Tremendous Bass” with “The Late Present’s” personal “Tremendous Balls,” and Jimmy Kimmel mentioned he wished to interview her cousin on “Jimmy Kimmel Dwell.”

The rapper retweeted the late-show bits and mentioned she loves Colbert, however mentioned she “by no means cited” the swollen-testicles anecdote as a purpose that she didn’t get vaccinated.

“The lie is so humorous/entertaining tho. I’d say smthng imply to this woman however I rlly like Stephen Colbert,” she mentioned of the parody, which opened with CNN’s Brianna Keilar asking Gupta concerning the controversy.

As for Kimmel’s interview request, she tweeted that her cousin was “keen to speak for the appropriate value.”

By Wednesday afternoon, or what Minaj referred to as “#BallGate day 3,” the rapper claimed she had been invited to the White Home to debate her stance.

“I believe it’s a step in the appropriate course. Sure, I’m going. I’ll be wearing all pink like Legally Blonde in order that they know I imply enterprise. I’ll ask questions on behalf of the ppl who’ve been made enjoyable of for merely being human,” she tweeted, including, “I’m doing it, babe. When you guys have questions you’d like me to ask, go away within the feedback. You’ll see it in actual time with full transparency.”

It was unclear whether or not she was joking concerning the White Home invite, however she apparently did have some correspondence with the Biden administration.

“As we’ve with others, we provided a name with Nicki Minaj and one in all our docs to reply questions she has concerning the security and effectiveness of the vaccine,” a White Home official mentioned in an e-mail to The Occasions on Wednesday.

Occasions workers author Chris Megerian contributed to this report.