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Rapper Nicki Minaj made a wild rant on Instagram Live on Wednesday night after claiming she was suspended from Twitter for a post in which she claimed her cousin’s friend in Trinidad and Tobago had become helpless and had suffered from swollen testicles after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.
“I was suspended from Twitter,” she said, in a photo of what appeared to be the ceiling of an apartment. “Twitter, a place where people say the most horrible things every day.”
The Trinidadian-born artist has repeatedly claimed that she had “given no facts” about the vaccine and that she was “just asking questions” – although her claims were refuted by the Trinidadian government – and Tobago earlier Wednesday. The country’s health ministry said it had found no evidence of a patient reporting the symptoms described by Minaj – in Trinidad or elsewhere.
“As it stands, there are absolutely no reported side effects or adverse events of testicular swelling in Trinidad,” the country’s Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh said at a press conference . “And none that we know of anywhere in the world,” he added.
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Deyalsingh also said he regretted that the agency spent “so much time” verifying Minaj’s facts, although he maintained that Trinidad and Tobago took “all of these claims seriously”, especially those that go viral on social media.
“Unfortunately, we wasted so much time yesterday dealing with this misrepresentation,” he said.
Twitter took issue with Minaj’s characterization on Wednesday evening, a spokesperson telling Vulture: “Twitter did not take any enforcement action on the referenced account.”
The “Super Bass” singer faced strong reactions for her tweet on Monday, which read:
“My cousin in Trinidad will not receive the vaccine because his friend received it and became impotent. His testicles became swollen. His friend was a few weeks away from getting married, now the girl has called off the wedding.”
She also told over 22 million subscribers to “pray over it and make sure you’re comfortable with your decision, not being bullied.”
In a previous tweet that kicked off the entire news cycle, Minaj said she skipped the 2021 Met Gala due to the event’s vaccination requirement.
His vaccine skepticism won him praise from an unlikely source: the right-wing media.
Tucker Carlson, a prime-time Fox News host, highlighted Minaj’s tweet during a Monday segment, saying they appeared “sensitive.” The channel’s chyron even said, “NICKI MINAJ: COUSIN’S TESTICLES ARE PULLED” – though the original tweet claimed his cousin’s. friends the testicles had become swollen.
During her Instagram Live appearance, Minaj acknowledged the humor of an entire news cycle devoted to the size of her cousin’s friend’s genitals.
“Much of that was funny, I’m not going to lie.”
But later, she compared having anti-vaccine opinions in 2021 to being Black in segregated America, saying, “Forget all of you that not so long ago, [Black Americans] couldn’t even make eye contact with people, and you’re okay? “
At one point, Minaj even said that she had no plans to return to the platform that had censored her.
“I will never use Twitter again,” she said. “It’s scary.”
You can watch the full video below via YouTube:
UPDATE: This story has been updated to include comment from a Twitter spokesperson.
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