US rapper Kanye West who is now legally known as Ye has in principle agreed to buy social media platform Parler, said Parlement Technologies on Monday. Ye's offer comes after he was locked out of his Instagram and Twitter accounts earlier last week for making posts that users condemned as anti-Semitic.
Ye told Bloomberg that he believes Parler is a place for people like him who cannot express themselves on other social media sites. "In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves," he said in a statement.
This move has come at a risky time for Parler which has been experiencing stagnation usage for months. The company had also attempted to find a buyer for the platform before Ye.
This move is similar to that of Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk who have criticised censorship on prominent social media networks.
What is Parler?
Parler is a popular self-styled free-speech social media app amongst US conservatives that was founded in 2018. It was the hands-off approach to content moderation that made it popular among the US conservatives who disagree with the social media sites limitations.
However, Parler's less stringent rules have gotten it into trouble with tech giants like Apple and Google after the 2021 attack on the US Captol by the supporters of former US President Donald Trump. Both Apple and Google took Parler off their app stores claiming that the company had not taken adequate measures to prevent posts inciting violence. Amazon had also temporarily stopped hosting the platform, taking it offline.
But the app was back online and on Google and Apple stores after they undertook content moderation measures like blocking abusive users and removing content that could ignite violence.
What is Parler worth and when will the deal close?
Parler has not given a deal value but the Nashville-based company has raised about $56 million to date. The company expects the deal to close by the end of this year. The deal will also include ongoing technical support from the company.
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