Kanye West to buy rightwing social network Parler

theguardian.com:

Kanye West is buying the rightwing social network Parler for an undisclosed sum, the site has announced.

The purchase by the rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

“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.

George Farmer, the chief executive of Parler’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, said: “This deal will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech. Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”

Farmer, who is married to the rightwing activist Candace Owens and is the son of the former Conservative party treasurer and peer Michael Farmer, added: “Once again, Ye proves that he is one step ahead of the legacy media narrative. Parlement will be honoured to help him achieve his goals.”

The site was founded in 2018 by John Matze and Rebekah Mercer, the daughter of the billionaire hedge fund manager and Breitbart founder Robert Mercer. But its involvement in the 6 January storming of the US capitol led to the ousting of Matze and his replacement in May 2021 by Farmer.

In the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol, Parler was removed from the Apple and Google app stores, and on 10 January went offline entirely after Amazon Web Services pulled its account.

Despite its billing as a “free speech” social network, the site was forced to add content moderation to be restored to the Apple App Store in May 2021, and did not return to Android devices until September 2022.