Kanye West has agreed in principle to acquire Parlor, the social media service that captivated fans of former President Donald J. Trump, according to the service’s parent company, Parliament Technologies. said in a news release on Monday.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered controversial, we need to make sure we have the right to express ourselves freely,” said the rapper and fashion designer. , now called Ye, said in a statement released by Parlement Technologies that it would not disclose the agreed price.
The announcement comes just over a week after Twitter and Instagram restricted Ye’s account in response to anti-Semitic remarks he posted.
Since its launch in 2018, Nashville-based Parler has established itself as a censorship-defying, “free speech” social network. It’s part of a long-running debate about who holds power over online speech. Last month, Parler said it raised her $16 million to $56 million. He is a rival to Trump-founded Truth Social.
Calling itself “the world’s pioneering irrevocable free speech platform,” Parler is currently ranked #108 for news apps in the US iOS app store. Data.ai, a platform that provides consumer and market data. It was number one at its peak, as millions of Trump supporters who were critical of censorship on Facebook and Twitter signed up. The app returned to Google’s Play app store in September, more than a year after Google shut it down for content inciting violence. The app was also banned from Apple’s App Store and revived.
Ye and Parlement Technologies expect to finalize an agreement in principle during the fourth quarter of this year, the news release said.
According to a report released this month by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, only 6% of adults regularly seek news from at least one of the seven major alternative social media sites. In addition to Parler, we have BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Rumble, Telegram and Truth Social.
Of the 10,188 people surveyed, 38% found they had heard of parlors. But despite the service’s limited reach, Pugh found that most of the people who frequented such places for news said they found like-minded companies there. Did.
Over the weekend, the YouTube rap series Drink Champs released a new episode featuring Ye. There, he repeated several anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and questioned the cause of death of George Floyd, a black man murdered by police officers in Minneapolis in 2020. (On Sunday, a lawyer representing Floyd’s family said they were considering filing a lawsuit Disagree with Ye about his remarks about Mr. Floyd’s death.)
Earlier this month, Ye wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words “White Lives Matter” to sabotage the YZY show at Paris Fashion Week. Anti-Defamation League called hate speech.
After Ye wore the “White Lives Matter” T-shirt, Adidas said it was considering a partnership with him.
Tiffany Shoe When Alex Marshall contributed to the report.