Making Free Speech Great Again , Kanye West Buys Social Media App “Parler”

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Kanye West has agreed to buy Parler, a  social media app that brands itself as a “free speech”-focused substitute for other social media platforms. The purchase echoes similar moves made by former President Trump and Elon Musk to own social media apps and push back against what they consider overbearing moderation policies that silence conservatives.

In response to Ye being locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts for recent posts. Ye was accused of making antisemitic post on both platforms .

Word is the deal was brokered by the conservative commentator Candace Owens at Ye’s fashion show in Paris. Owens is CEO of Parler George Farmer’s wife, and she coordinated with Ye to wear “White Lives Matter” shirts to that show, which drew outrage. Farmer said that Ye will “never have to fear being removed from social media again.”

Parler calls itself an “uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome.” It spiked in popularity following the 2020 presidential election, but found itself in internet no man’s land after it was accused of allowing users to organize the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection on its platform. Parler was booted from Apple’s and Google’s app stores (though it’s now back on both), as well as from Amazon Web Services.

Still, Parler has struggled to regain popularity in 2022, having been downloaded just 90,000 times last month, per Sensor Tower. Twitter, by comparison, had 9 million downloads.

Elon Musk, who’s pledged to cut back on content moderation at Twitter once he owns it, celebrated Ye’s deal yesterday, with a since-deleted tweet sharing a meme of himself (as Twitter) and Ye (as Parler) joining forces.