The agreement in principle to buy the social media service comes days after Twitter and Instagram restricted the rapper’s account for violating its terms.
Kanye West has agreed in principle to buy Parler, the social media service that has attracted fans of former President Donald J. Trump, the service’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, said in a news release on Monday.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” the rapper and fashion designer, who now goes by Ye, said in the statement released by Parlement Technologies, which did not disclose the agreed-upon price.
The announcement came a little over a week after Twitter and Instagram restricted Ye’s accounts in response to antisemitic remarks that he posted.
From its start in 2018, Parler, which is based is Nashville, has railed against censorship and has presented itself as a “free speech” social network, with less stringent content rules than sites such as Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. Last month, Parler, whose investors include the right-wing activist and heiress Rebekah Mercer, said it had raised $16 million, bringing its funding to $56 million. It is a competitor to Truth Social, which was founded by Mr. Trump.
Parler, which calls itself “the world’s pioneering uncancelable free speech platform,” currently ranks 108th for news apps in the U.S. iOS app store, according to Data.ai, a platform that provides consumer and market data. At its peak, it was No. 1, as millions of Trump supporters, critical of what they deemed censorship on Facebook and Twitter, signed up. Apple, Amazon and Google briefly kicked Parler off their platforms early last year after the app hosted calls for violence around the time of the Jan. 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
Ye and Parlement Technologies expect to finalize their agreement in principle during the fourth quarter of this year, the news release said.
A report this month from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center found that only 6 percent of adults regularly seek out news from at least one of seven major alternative social media sites; in addition to Parler, they are BitChute, Gab, Gettr, Rumble, Telegram and Truth Social.
Of the 10,188 people surveyed, 38 percent had heard of Parler, Pew found. But despite the services’ limited reach, Pew found that most of the people who do frequent such places for news said they found like-minded company there.
Over the weekend, the rap YouTube series Drink Champs released a new episode featuring Ye in which he repeated several antisemitic conspiracy theories and questioned the cause of the death of George Floyd, the Black man who was murdered in 2020 by a police officer in Minneapolis. (On Sunday, a lawyer representing Mr. Floyd’s family said they were considering filing a lawsuit against Ye for his statements about Mr. Floyd’s death.)
Earlier this month, Ye disrupted his YZY show at Paris Fashion Week by wearing a T-shirt featuring the words “White Lives Matter,” a phrase that the Anti-Defamation League has called hate speech.
After Ye wore the “White Lives Matter” T-shirt, Adidas said it was reviewing its partnership with him.
Tiffany Hsu and Alex Marshall contributed reporting.
"company" - Google News
October 17, 2022 at 08:05PM
https://ift.tt/VQloKab
Kanye West Agrees to Buy Parler, Company Says - The New York Times
"company" - Google News
https://ift.tt/lH9JdmL
https://ift.tt/xrji5sy
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Kanye West Agrees to Buy Parler, Company Says - The New York Times"
Post a Comment