CNN business
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Kanye West is about to acquire Parlor, an alternative social media platform favored by many conservatives.
Parlor’s parent company announced the deal on Monday morning, saying West “has made a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space so he doesn’t have to fear being removed from social media again.” .
The acquisition comes after West, who legally changed his name to Ye, had his account temporarily locked by Twitter earlier this month for anti-Semitic tweets.
The exact terms of the deal with Parlor were not disclosed, but Parlor said it still needs to reach a final agreement with West, which is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter. Parler’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, will remain involved by providing technical services and cloud support.
The Parlor acquisition makes West the social media platform’s newest celebrity, after former President Donald Trump tried to win over conservatives after Truth Social and Tesla CEO Elon Musk proposed buying Twitter. A small group of wealthy men have also been banned or suspended for inflammatory remarks, resulting in what they call “free speech.” It also highlights that it intends to own a social media platform to power it up.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered controversial, we need to make sure we have the right to express ourselves freely,” West said in a Parlor release.
As part of the announcement, Parler linked West’s account on the platform. This seems to have started at the same time. As of early Monday, the account has about 500 followers.
For Ye, the deal came at a particularly controversial time. West has made headlines in recent weeks for wearing his T-shirt with “White Lives Matter” in public and defending his use of the slogan. Tucker Carlson. After the shirt incident, apparel company Adidas said this month it was considering a partnership with West.
ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt told CNN Monday he called Parlor a “haven” of hate.
Parlor was founded in 2018 and experienced rapid growth around the 2020 election. The app, which bills itself as a loosely moderated free speech paradise, has become popular among conservative politicians and media insiders, with an estimated 2.9 million daily users, according to market research firm Apptopia. reached. But since then, Parler’s fortunes have waned, with estimated daily users down to just 40,000, Apptopia told CNN on Monday. (By comparison, his number of active daily users on Twitter exceeds 237 million).
In the weeks following the Jan. 6 riots, Parler was removed from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Both companies say they failed to properly manage violent rhetoric on their platforms. Documents provided to the House committee investigating the Capitol riot show how the Secret Service was aware of parlor posts suggesting possible violence surrounding the day. Separately, Parler wrote to Congress, arguing that lawmakers’ interest in the app’s role in the riots was intended to make the app a “scapegoat.”
Parler has been restored to both app stores after making changes to content moderation practices.
Parler has faced more competition in recent months as the burgeoning right-wing digital media ecosystem expands. Truth Social launched in Apple’s app store in February and was approved in Google’s app store on October 13th. According to Apptopia, Truth Social saw a surge in downloads after it hit the Google Play store last week. He has 144,000 daily active users.
Musk’s move to acquire Twitter also has the potential to upend Parler and similar services if the deal goes through. Musk has repeatedly called for the permanent ban to be lifted and for Twitter to rethink its approach to content moderation.
It could also mean that Musk and Ye, who are said to be friends, are currently competing with each other. After Ye’s anti-Semitic tweets sparked protests, Musk murmured: “I spoke with you today and expressed my concerns about his recent tweets. I hope he took that to heart.”
A week later, a deal was announced for Ye to acquire Parler.
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