According To The Company, Kanye West, Now Known As Ye, Has Agreed To Purchase The Conservative Social Media Site parlar stock
The parent company of the Parler app announced in a statement on Monday that superstar rapper Kanye West, who has made a number of divisive and antisemitic remarks recently, has reached an agreement in principle to purchase the conservative social media platform.
West, who now goes by Ye, said in a statement made public by Parler that “we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves in a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial.”
The deal’s financial details weren’t made public. Prior to now, the business claimed to have secured $56 million in funding from outside investors.
AP – Evan Agostini – Invision
Ye was forced to take this action after being banned from both his Twitter and Instagram accounts for making anti-Semitic comments. Ye played into a long-standing antisemitic conspiracy theory in one of his posts, claiming that fellow rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs was under Jewish control. Ye’s account was blocked on Twitter after he threatened to “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”
An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by a Ye representative. Ye told Bloomberg News that he decided to purchase Parler as a result of being punished by Instagram and Twitter. He also declined to tell the outlet what the terms of the agreement were.
Ye reportedly has a $2 billion net worth. His association with Gap and Adidas as well as his line of Yeezy sneakers account for a large portion of his wealth. Adidas said it is also reviewing its business relationship with Ye after he recently severed business ties with Gap. The rapper was also cut off from JPMorgan Chase.
In the Donald Trump era, a number of right-wing-friendly platforms have emerged in response to complaints from the former president’s supporters that Twitter and other apps treat them unfairly. Additionally, there is Trump’s own app, Truth Social, whose parent company is under federal investigation as it prepares to go public, and Getty, which is run by former Trump advisor Jason Miller. Rumble, a platform for conservative-friendly video, went public last month.
Parler, which debuted in 2018, became embroiled in controversy last year due to its involvement in the Capitol building riots on January 6, 2021. Because of this, numerous tech firms, including Google and Amazon, blacklisted the service, making its app and website unavailable.
Google, on the other hand, claimed to have changed some of its content moderation policies and enforcement in September and re-posted the app on its Play Store. In April 2021, Apple updated the app on its App Store platform.
Kanye West will purchase the Parler social network; Fox and News Corp. are in talks to reunite.
Parler built its own internal cloud infrastructure in an effort to lessen its reliance on third-party technologies. In September, the business established a new parent company called Parlement Technologies with the intention of developing its own cloud service for online commerce. At the time, the business declared that “the future is irrevocable.”
The parent company of Ye and Parler stated that they anticipate closing the deal before the year is out. As part of the agreement, Parler’s parent company will provide technical support as well as access to its private cloud services.
Ye turned to Twitter after Instagram suspended him, posting there for the first time since 2020. Mark, look at this. How you going to remove me from Instagram,” he wrote, addressing Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, the company that owns Instagram.
Ye’s friend Elon Musk replied, “Welcome back to Twitter, my friend,” in response.
Following Ye’s suspension from Twitter for breaking its rules, Musk tweeted that he had spoken with Ye and “expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart.”
At the moment, Musk is looking to buy Twitter. The Tesla CEO announced last week that he would purchase the social media platform at the initial $54.20 per share price they agreed upon in April, reigniting interest in that takeover. The self-described “free speech absolutist” billionaire wants to turn Twitter into a “digital town square” that encourages free speech.
Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer commented on the agreement on Monday, saying it “will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech.”
Farmer said in a statement that Ye was “making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space” and wouldn’t ever have to worry about being banned from social media again. “Ye shows that he is always one step ahead of the narrative being told by the legacy media. It will be an honor for Parlement to support him in his endeavors.
One of Ye’s online supporters, American conservative activist Candace Owens, is married to Farmer. Additionally, Michael Farmer, a British Conservative lawmaker who sits in the UK Parliament’s upper house, is his father.
After John Matze, the former CEO of Parler, was fired due to a disagreement with Rebekah Mercer, the app’s early investor, George Farmer was named CEO in May of last year. The majority owner of Parler is Mercer, the billionaire hedge fund manager Robert Mercer’s heiress daughter.