According to Parlement Technologies, American rapper Kanye West has agreed to take over Parler, a social media platform known among U.S. conservatives. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Parler, one of the social media platforms that claims to be an alternative to Twitter, was released in 2018 but removed from the Google Play Store and Apple App Store after the riots in January 2021 and is now available again in the Google and Apple App Stores.
Kanye West said he bought Parler because he believed existing platforms such as Instagram and Twitter were too restrictive in terms of user language, and he was barred from Twitter and Instagram for violating content guidelines by using anti-Semitic language.
“When I got kicked off of Instagram and Twitter at the time, I knew it was time to acquire my own platform. People had talked about it and mentioned this idea for years, but enough was enough. We’re using this as a net for the people who have been bullied by the thought police to come and speak their mind. Express how you feel. Express what’s tied up inside of you. Express what’s been haunting you. I use social media as my therapist,” Ye said in an interview with Bloomberg News on Monday.
Ye said Parler is for people like him who have been punished by much bigger platforms.
Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer, meanwhile, said the Parler deal was done quickly and that Parlement had been “presented with an opportunity” but did not disclose the value of the deal.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.