London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Feb 26, 2026

Kanye West calls social-media apps like Facebook and Instagram 'modern-day cigarettes,' says his conversations with Mark Zuckerberg were 'completely different' from his talks with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, his favorite founder

Kanye West calls social-media apps like Facebook and Instagram 'modern-day cigarettes,' says his conversations with Mark Zuckerberg were 'completely different' from his talks with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, his favorite founder

The radio host Zane Lowe interviewed the singer Kanye West on Apple Music.
West called Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey his favorite founder and said Dorsey offered to invest in him early on.

He had less flattering things to say about Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, whom West had famously asked to invest $1 billion into his ideas. West called social-media apps like Instagram "modern-day cigarettes" and said his meetings and conversations with Zuckerberg were "completely different" from his talks with Dorsey.

Kanye West said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is his favorite founder in an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music released Thursday.

West called Dorsey "just incredibly smart, visionary," and praised his history as a founder of both Twitter and Square, a payments service.

Referring to Square's testing a stock-trading service in its Cash app that would allow people to buy shares in holding companies like Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, West said Dorsey has "created an app where someone can buy into that stock at a dollar." West also said Dorsey was one of the first people who wanted to invest in him.

He talked about the different visions of founders and investors and of his respect for founders.

"You've got to honor those living founders," West said. "Those are the great-great-great-great-grandfathers of what's being built."

Twitter declined to comment.

When Lowe asked which founders West was speaking to, West responded: "All of them. Give me a call."

West said "every founder on the planet" would have to look him in the eye when he becomes president of the US. "I will forgive - but I will remember - any founder that didn't have the capacity to understand, culturally, what we were doing," he said.

West doesn't appear to be a big fan of Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO he famously asked to invest $1 billion into his ideas.

"I will always remember every meeting and interaction I've had with Jack Dorsey, and I will always remember my meetings and interactions with Mark Zuckerberg - and they've been completely different," he said.

West then said people were being brainwashed by social-media apps like Instagram.

"It is the modern-day cigarettes," he said, echoing a favorite line of Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who has called Facebook the "new cigarettes."

A Facebook representative was not immediately available to comment.

West said in the interview that he'd struggled with sex addiction for decades, and he likened photos on apps like Instagram to what pornography was like for him growing up.

Dorsey has also taken digs at Zuckerberg recently, including at a Twitter News Summit on Thursday when he called Zuckerberg's attempt to rewrite Facebook's founding as a response to the Iraq War "revisionist history."

Finally, West emphasized that he no longer considers himself an entertainer but a "Christian innovator" and announced that he was working on a music-related device with the Swedish music-technology company Teenage Engineering.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
From fears of AI-fuelled unemployment to Big Tech's record investment, this is AI Weekly.
US Lawmakers Seek Briefing from UK Over Reported Encryption Order Directed at Apple
UK Business Secretary Calls on EU to Remove Trade Barriers Hindering Growth
Legal Pathways for Removing Prince Andrew from Britain’s Line of Succession Examined
PM Netanyahu welcome India PM Narendra Modi to Israel
Shadow Diplomacy: How Harry and Meghan’s Jordan Trip Undermines the Monarchy
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, co-owner of Manchester United, comments on immigration in the UK.
Bill Gates, the UN and the WEF are attempting to construct "a giant digital gulag for all of humanity" via digital ID, CBDCs and vaccine passport infrastructure.
Britain’s Channel Crisis: Paying Billions While the Boats Keep Coming
Downing Street’s Veteran Deception Scandal
UK HealthCare Expands ‘Food as Health’ Initiative Statewide to Tackle Chronic Illness in Kentucky
Leonardo Chief Says UK Set to Decide on New Medium Helicopter Programme
UK Slows Chagos Islands Agreement After Concerns Raised in Washington
European and UK Stock Markets Reach Fresh Highs as Banks and Miners Lead Rally
UK Government Insists Chagos Islands Negotiations Continue After Minister’s ‘Pause’ Remark
No Confirmed Deal for Engie to Acquire UK Power Networks Amid Market Speculation
UK Reaffirms Updated Entry Requirements for Travellers as of February 25, 2026
General Atlantic to sell equity stake in ByteDance, valuing the company at $550 billion
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz Secures Pledge from China for Greater Imports of Quality Goods
Lord Mandelson Condemns Arrest as Driven by ‘Baseless Suggestion’ He Would Flee Abroad
Former UK Ambassador Released on Bail Following Arrest in Epstein-Linked Investigation
UK Parliament Orders Release of Former Prince Andrew’s Government Vetting Files
Reddit Fined £14 Million by UK Regulator Over Failures in Age Verification Controls
UK Moves to Tighten Regulation of Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video Under New Media Rules
British Woman Who Reported Rape in Hong Kong Faces Possible Prosecution
'Christianity is the religion that has made this country great.'
Man Receives Parking Ticket 38 Years After Offense: ‘City Officials Said It’s Legitimate’
Woman Receives Gift Card for Christmas – Discovers It Is ‘Worth’ 63,000,000,000,000,000 Pounds
UK Sanctions New Zealand Insurer Maritime Mutual Following Allegations Over Russian Oil Cover
Reform MP Danny Kruger Condemns UK’s ‘Unregulated Sexual Economy’ in Call for Tougher Controls
The Show Must Go On: Prince William and Kate Middleton Shine at the BAFTAs Amid Andrew’s Arrest
UK Sanctions Russian ‘Illicit Oil Traders’ After Email Blunder Exposes Sanctions Evasion Network
Russia Amplifies Baseless Claims That UK and France Plan to Arm Ukraine with Nuclear Weapons
UK Imposes Sanctions on Two Georgian Television Channels Over Alleged Russian Disinformation
United States National Parks See Noticeable Drop in Visitors from Canada, U.K. and Australia
UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand Escalate Sanctions on Russia as Ukraine War Marks Four Years
I Gave Andrew a Nude Massage Inside Buckingham Palace
UK Economy Faces Acute Strain as Trump’s Global Tariff Reshapes Trade Landscape
UK Signals Retaliation Is Possible as New US Tariff Policy Threatens Trade Stability
British Police Arrest Former Ambassador Peter Mandelson in Epstein-Related Misconduct Probe
Australia Officially Supports Proposal to Remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from Royal Succession
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan remains silent on ISIS brides' resettlement plans in Melbourne
Former UK Ambassador Peter Mandelson Arrested in Connection with Jeffrey Epstein
Jacob Rees Mogg afraid to talk about Peter Mandelson arrest on “suspicion of misconduct in a public office” (Pedophilia, corruption, etc.)
United Nations Calls for Global Action Against Disinformation and Hate Speech Online
Tucker Carlson warns of an inevitable clash in Western societies over mass migration
President Trump warns countries against abandoning recent trade deals with the US
Diverging Polls Show Mixed Signals on UK Economic Revival as Confidence Remains Fragile
Spotify Expands AI-Driven ‘Prompted Playlists’ Feature to the United Kingdom and Other Markets
Greens and Reform UK Surge in Manchester By-Election, Threatening Labour’s Historic Stronghold
×