Key Points
- Kanye West has agreed to buy far-right friendly social media network Parler shortly.
- Seen as an online home for extremist rhetoric, Parler won fans in the ultra-far right.
Kanye West has agreed to buy far-right friendly social media network Parler shortly after .
Seen as an online home for extremist rhetoric unwelcome at established social networks, Parler won fans in the ultra-far right.
The 45-year-old rapper, producer, and fashion designer, who now goes by the name Ye, said in a release that he wants to buy Parler to make sure that those with conservative political viewpoints "have the right to freely express ourselves".
Parler was from Apple and Google app stores last year for failing to moderate calls for violence after the attack on the US Capitol by supporters of former US president Donald Trump.
West has agreed in principle to buy Parler, and the Nashville-based platform which has raised about $US56 million ($A89 million) to date, says it expects the deal to close during the fourth quarter of 2022. It has not given a deal value.
Parler, which launched in 2018, has been reinstated on Google and Apple Inc's app stores after being removed following the US Capitol riots in January 2021.
Parler is one of several social media platforms, including Gettr, Gab and Truth Social, that position themselves as free-speech alternatives to Twitter.
Parler talks began following Ye West's 'White Lives Matter' t-shirt
Last month, Parler created a new parent company, Parlement Technologies, as part of an overhaul.
Parlement Technologies chief executive officer George Farmer told Reuters the deal talks with Ye began recently, after Paris Fashion Week.
In Paris on 3 October, West, who is also a fashion designer, wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the phrase: 'White Lives Matter'.
Four days later, he made Instagram posts that several Jewish groups called anti-Semitic. Meta Platforms, which owns Instagram and Facebook, locked West out of his Instagram account for the posts.
Kanye West caused controversy at Paris Fashion Week. Source: Getty
The Parler deal came together quickly, Mr Farmer said, and Parlement was "presented with an opportunity": "The motivating factor with him was the discussion about Instagram blocking him."
West seemed to have joined Parler on Monday and had about 91 followers at the time of the announcement.
"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 in a statement.
Mr Farmer says Parler has 16.5 million registered users.
Forbes estimates West to have a net worth of $US2 billion.
'Status symbol?'
Parler was launched in the summer of 2018 by software engineer John Matze and Rebekah Mercer, a major Republican Party donor.
Little known until 2021, the platform caught the spotlight after Mr Trump was ousted from Twitter due to concerns his posts would ignite more violence in his effort to overturn his election loss.
West's proposed takeover of Parler comes as the rapper faces accusations of racism and anti-Semitism that have resulted in restrictions placed on his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
"By owning Parler, Kanye can make sure he can say what he wants on the platform," Megan Brown and Joshua Tucker of New York University's center for social media and politics said in a note.
"Of course, it may also be that owning a social media platform is now becoming a status symbol for the outspoken ultra-rich, especially those who have run into trouble with existing platforms."
Mr Trump launched his own social media network earlier this year, while Tesla chief Elon Musk's $70 billion (US$44 billion) deal to buy Twitter appears to be back on after his effort to back out.
Far from Facebook
Parler has been downloaded 8.5 million times since its launch, including 6.2 million times in the United States, according to figures from data.ai.
Only 58,000 downloads of Parler were logged in September at major app shops run by Apple and Google, compared with some 72 million downloads of Facebook during the same period.
Parler did not respond to a request for information about the platform's finances and user numbers.
Mr Trump does not have an official account on Parler.
Ye, who opened his Parler account last week, is followed by 1,800 subscribers there while he has more than 31 million followers on Twitter and 18.2 million followers on Instagram.
Banned for a bit
Concerns over misinformation and rhetoric with the potential to cause real-world harm saw Apple and Google remove Parler from their rival app shops after the 6 January attack on the Capitol.
Amazon Web Services cloud computing platform gave similar reasoning for a decision to stop hosting Parler on its servers, effectively disabling the social media website.
Parler has since been allowed back in the App Store and Google Play shop, ostensibly after bringing its content moderation systems in line with policies at the rival tech companies.
"Google and Apple both require content moderation policies that remove illegal content including incitement to violence, which is why they were banned in the first place," Ms Brown and Mr Tucker said.
Limited audience
Parler is one of many social networks wooing ultraconservatives opposed to the notion of platforms filtering dangerously inflammatory or deceptive posts.
Parler rivals include Gettr, Gab, Rumble, and Mr Trump's own Truth Social, which had some technical troubles after it launched in February.
Mr Trump's social network also found itself unwelcome at Google's shop for content tailored for Android-powered mobile devices until it improved its content moderation systems.
According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, only six per cent of Americans regularly get information from one of these so-called "alternative" social media applications.
