As Metropolitan Police confirm to CAA that Wiley was not in the UK during his antisemitic tirade, CAA instructs lawyers to pursue the case abroad

The Metropolitan Police Service has confirmed to Campaign Against Antisemitism that Wiley was not in the UK during his antisemitic tirade in July. Under Home Office rules, that means that the Metropolitan Police must give primacy to police in the jurisdiction where Wiley was at the time.

In anticipation of this development, Campaign Against Antisemitism has already appointed lawyers in that jurisdiction and we will pursue justice abroad. At this time we will not give further details.

On 24th July, the rapper, whose name is Richard Kylea Cowie but who is known as Wiley, spent days engaged in an escalating rant against Jews. After likening Jews to the Ku Klax Klan and claiming that Jews had cheated him and were “snakes”, Wiley tweeted that Jews should “hold some corn”, which is a slang expression meaning that they should be shot. He added “Jewish community you deserve it”. He also called on “black people” to go to “war” with Jews.

Wiley repeatedly evoked conspiracy theories that Jews were responsible for the slave trade and that modern-day Jews are in fact imposters who usurped black people — a conspiracy theory that has incited acts of terrorism against Jews, such as a stabbing attack in Monsey in New York in December.

In the days that followed, Wiley continued to rail against Jews on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Following discussions with Campaign Against Antisemitism, a major 48-hour boycott of Twitter and Instagram in which we participated, and a viral stunt in which we projected antisemitic tweets onto Twitter’s London headquarters, Twitter, Facebook (which owns Instagram), Google (which owns YouTube) and TikTok agreed to remove Wiley from their platforms, depriving him of access to his nearly one million social media followers.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is continuing its response to this incident, including:

• Filing a criminal complaint abroad against Wiley;
• Continuing to meet with Twitter, Facebook and Google to address their response to antisemitism on their platforms;
• Working with the Cabinet Office’s Honours Forfeiture Committee to ensure that Wiley’s MBE is revoked;
• Seeking a change in policy so that racists are automatically stripped of their honours in future (please help by signing our Parliamentary petition);
• Urging the Government to bring forward legislation to regulate social networks and force them to remove racist incitement (please help by signing our Parliamentary petition); and
• Working with the music industry to remove Wiley’s awards and ensure that he is shunned for his racism.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “At this stage we are able to confirm that the Metropolitan Police Service has closed its investigation due to jurisdictional issues and that we have instructed lawyers abroad to pursue this matter. When antisemites incite hatred against Jews, we will pursue them, including across borders if necessary. We will provide further details at a later date.”