Kanye West is acquiring the libertarian-leaning social network Parler, the company announced on Monday, just days after his Instagram and Twitter accounts were temporarily locked for a spate of posts that were criticized for being anti-Semitic.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” said musician and fashion designer West, now known as Ye, in a statement released by Parlement Technologies, which operates Parler. The company did not disclose the value of the deal.
Parler, which calls itself an “uncancelable free speech platform” was established in 2018 but rose to prominence in the aftermath of the 2020 election, when it became a haven for users who were banned from the mainstream social media platforms for spreading hate speech and disinformation. The platform was temporarily taken offline in early 2021, shortly after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol building, when Apple, Google and Amazon all withdrew their support for it, citing its lack of content moderation. Many on the political right saw the removals as a sign of rising “cancel culture” and censorship by Big Tech companies.
Parler is a micro-player in the social media space. Its user base has plummeted since its time in the spotlight in early 2021, according to estimates from analytics firm data.ai. It now has less than a million monthly active users, compared to more than 6 million in the first half of 2021. Twitter, by comparison, has 238 million daily active users. Facebook has nearly 2 billion.
Although the platform’s user base is currently relatively small, West’s acquisition of Parler could have implications for Twitter if Elon Musk goes through with his on-again off-again $44 billion acquisition of the platform. It suggests that Musk—who has echoed Republican talking points by saying he plans to roll back Twitter’s restrictions on free speech— may have competition from another celebrity provocateur who is prepared to lean even further rightwards.
