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Kanye West buys right-wing media platform Parler

by on18 October 2022


Buying your own social media platform is what all the best right-wingers with money do

Popular beat combo artist Kanye West, who once saw himself as the Messiah and now apparently self-identifies as a white middle-aged rust belt bigot, called Ye, has followed his chum Donald Trump and bought a "conservative" social media platform to peddle his views.

Ye has been posting antisemitic comments recently and has agreed in principle to buy Parler.

Ye said: "In a world where conservative opinions are considered controversial, we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves."

We are not sure that it is "conservative" to call for Jewish people to be attacked, or that saying "black lives matter" means you are part of a conspiracy but then we slept through the last UK conservative conference.

The financial terms of the deal weren't announced. The company previously said it had raised $56 million in funding from outside investors.

Ye's net worth is reportedly $2 billion. Much of his fortune comes from his Yeezy sneakers brand and partnerships with Gap and Adidas. However, Ye recently severed business ties with Gap, and Adidas said it's reviewing its business relationship with him. JPMorgan Chase also cut ties with the rapper.

Parler launched in 2018 and got into trouble when it was implicated in the 6 January riots at the Capitol building. It was initially blocked by Google and Amazon but was re-instated after it changed some of its content moderation policies and enforcement. Apple restored the app on its App Store platform in April 2021.

Parler has sought to reduce its dependence on technologies from other firms by establishing its own cloud infrastructure in-house. The company set up a new parent company in September, Parlement Technologies, to provide its own cloud service for online business. "The future is uncancelable," the company said at the time.

The company said that Ye and Parler's parent company expect to finalise the deal before the end of the year. The terms of the agreement include technical support for Parler from its parent company and its private cloud services.

Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer said it "will change the world and change the way the world thinks about free speech."

"Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again. Once again, Ye proves he is one step ahead of the legacy media narrative. Parlement will be honoured to help him achieve his goals."

Farmer is married to American conservative activist Candace Owens, one of Ye's advocates on social media. He is the son of Michael Farmer, a British Conservative politician who sits in the upper chamber of the UK Parliament. The money behind the outfit appeared to come from Rebekah Mercer, the heiress daughter of hedge fund billionaire Robert Mercer.

 

Last modified on 18 October 2022
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