Kanye West is set to buy the social-media platform Parler, which describes itself as the “Premier Global Free Speech App,” after he was removed from Twitter and Instagram over antisemitic statements.
West, who now goes by the name Ye, released a statement explaining his purchase. “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.
Parlement Technologies, Parler’s parent company, said it expects the deal to close later this year, though the company didn’t say how much West would be paying. The company has raised $56 million to date.
West has been embroiled in several controversies in the last few weeks across social-media platforms following multiple antisemitic statements he made.
“I’m a bit sleepy tonight but when I wake up I’m going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE The funny thing is I actually cant be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also,” one of West’s tweets read. On another podcast, West alleged, “They blocked me out. The Jewish media blocked me out.”
In addition to his removal from Instagram and Twitter, West’s statements have led him to lose numerous corporate deals with JPMorgan, Adidas, and the Gap.
Many across the conservative world have denounced West’s comments, but one prominent holdout is the Daily Wire’s Candace Owens, who rushed to his defense. “If you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic. You did not think that he wrote this tweet because he hates or wants to genocide Jewish people. This is not the beginning of a Holocaust,” Owens said in a video made in response to West’s “death con 3” tweet. This has placed Owens’s boss, Ben Shapiro, an observant Jew, in an uncomfortable position. Shapiro has said that while he disagrees with Owens’s position on West, she is free to continue to debate the issue at the Daily Wire.
Parler emerged in 2018 amid growing fears of Big Tech censorship on social-media platforms. Its ranks initially drew heavily from right-wing circles. Among its earliest and best-known adopters were Candace Owens, Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, and Rudy Giuliani. It was recently returned to the Google and Apple app stores after being taken down after the Capitol riot.