Hip-hop icon Kanye West announced plans to buy the fledgling social-media app Parler.
Key Details
- West, who now goes by the name Ye, says he would like to acquire Parler because other social-media outlets do provide enough freedom of speech. No financial details have been released.
- Parler is a controversial app that was created for users who wanted to leave Twitter due to political censorship.
- Ye has been banned from many apps due to his own controversial words so he has offered to purchase the app and make it his own.
Why it’s news
Many social-media apps have been facing issues on how to control speech and what people say on social platforms.
Ye has been banned multiple times on both Instagram and Twitter for making comments that violated the sites’ rules, so he decided to buy his own platform—Parler.
Parler was launched in 2018 and markets itself as a free-speech-focused and unbiased alternative to mainstream social networks. The app’s parent company Parlement Technologies announced today that it will be selling the platform to Ye.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” Ye says in a statement about the purchase.
Parler has had a tough time abiding by app store policies while allowing users to have free speech. The app was banned from both Google and Apple’s app store following the U.S. Capitol insurrection in 2021. It was able to return to Apple in May 2021 and made a Google comeback last month.
Parler stats show the app has around 16 million registered users, while Instagram has around 1.4 billion.
Other apps being purchased by celebrities
Elon Musk has been in the news for months as he battles to buy social media app Twitter for $44 billion.
He first offered to buy the app in April, but then backtracked causing a huge case as Twitter tried to sue him.
Now, he has reverted back to his original offer and the two parties are attempting to come to terms with the deal.
