Kanye West Reaches Surprise Agreement to Buy Social Media Platform
On the day he roared back into the spotlight at his Paris fashion show wearing a White Lives Matter shirt earlier this month, Kanye West told those attending, “You can’t manage me.”
This week, West took another step to underline as news emerged that after being censored on Instagram and Twitter, he would acquire the social media platform Parler.
“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” West said, according to a news release.
The release from Parlement Technologies, the parent company of Parler, said West was “taking a bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech, using his far-reaching talents to further lead the fight to create a truly non-cancelable environment.”
In announcing the preliminary agreement, the release said West, who has legally changed his name to Ye, and the company will close the deal by the end of this year.
The company will provide technical support and private cloud services from the company, the release said. No purchase price was announced.
The release said Parler will now have “a future role in creating an uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome.”
“This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech,” Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer said.
“Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again. Once again, Ye proves that he is one step ahead of the legacy media narrative. Parlement will be honored to help him achieve his goals,” he said.
Parler emerged as an alternative to existing social media platforms in September 2018, according to Axios.
The app suffered a major blow in the aftermath of the Capitol insurrection when it was removed from Google and Apple’s app stores. Apple restored the app last year; Google did so last month.
The company has been on the rebound this year, raising $20 million in January, Axios reported.
West has dominated headlines since he unveiled the White Lives Matter shirt the first week of October.
“I am Ye, and everyone here knows that I am the leader,” he said at one point, citing the new legal name he has adopted, according to The New York Times. “You can’t manage me.”
During subsequent interviews, West has steered a controversial and unsteady rhetorical course, with Instagram and Twitter restricting his accounts for anti-Semitic content, according to NPR.
West hit back when Instagram banned him with a since-deleted tweet that read, “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 can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew also You guys have toyed with me and tried to black ball anyone whoever opposes your agenda.”
West has said there is a purpose behind what he does.
“God builds warriors in a different way,” he said in a recent interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News. “He made me for such a time like this.”
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