Kanye West agrees to buy conservative social-media platform Parler

Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images Entertainment

Kanye West agreed to buy conservative social-media app Parler just weeks after being kicked off of Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) for making antisemitic comments.

Parlement Technologies announced on Monday that it entered into an agreement in principle to sell Parler, to Ye (formerly known as Kanye West), according to a statement.

"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 said in the statement.

The deal comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk is set to complete his $44 billion purchase of Twitter (TWTR) by the end of the month after he originally tried to back out of the deal for the social media giant. Musk has already said would bring former President Donald Trump back on the platform after he was kicked off last year and started his own social media app called Truth Social. Trump's social media company is going public through SPAC Digital World Acquisition (DWAC).

Parler and West expect to enter a definitive purchase agreement and expect a close during Q4. The terms of the deal would include ongoing technical support from Parlement and the use of private cloud services via Parlement's private cloud and data center infrastructure.

Last month, Google (GOOGL) agreed to bring conservative-leaning app Parler back to its Play Store. Parler agreed to modify its app to moderate content and remove posts that may incite violence, Google said in a statement at the time. Parler had been banned from the Play Store since January 2021.

The Parler news comes after video platform Rumble (RUM), which some describe as a conservative alternative to YouTube, went public after a de-SPAC last month. Rumble shares have dropped 23% since going public a month ago.

Comments

[deva33]

Shalom to all of you.
kanye is 1000% correct, he is soo smart he has the 3 Bs no-one of you left vx tardians have. He has brains, backbone and baxyxls. PLUS TALENT.

He made billions. listen carefully.

www.youtube.com/...
then tell me at what min @ exact which min what he says and why you don agree and send me links to counter proof waht he says..stats and facts. then I will reply.

[munhoi]

Parler will lose so much money Kanye will be in BK court himself to get out of the massive debt hes going to be faced with personally and business wise,

in essence he will be lucky to own a Trailer home in 7 years from now

[Higher Education Inquirer]

Good investment for Russian oligarchs and CCP officials?

[Shourey01]

Can Kenye plead insanity, to get out of any deal ?

[munhoi]

@Shourey01 no he cant, his psychiatrist dropped him too LOL

[buckiowa]

@Shourey01 Fetterman did well in that debate last night

[kata]

@buckiowa didnt see it. Did he say why it’s good to let violent criminals out of jail?

[munhoi]

on 2nd thought maybe Trump, Bannon, Navarro, Proud Boys, Kanye can all share a big cell with 5 bunk beds together and save the taxpayers even more money in the future LOL after they all resort to more crime to save themselves going forwards IMHO

[munhoi]

when Kanye resorts to crime to save himself , maybe Weinstein and Kanye can share the same jail cell together in the future and save us alot of taxpayers money LOL

[munhoi]

every sponsor now is dumping him , talent agency dumped him , I change my estimate he will be bankrupt in 5 years from now not 7 years , as the world of Ye going over the cliff literally IMHO

[ontherancocas]

@buckiowa Ocasio-Cortez came in second in a microbiology category of the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007. In a show of appreciation the MIT Lincoln laboratory named a small asteroid after her. 23238 Ocasio-Cortez. en.wikipedia.org/...

[munhoi]

Kanye will be bankrupt in 7 years IMHO, the world will slowly and crash furiously on him count on sponsors , agents, anything related to him to go up in dust and he will be seeking BK protection latest 7 years from today IMHO

[User 56360468]

Kanye's had pretty good success with his business ventures. If anyone can make Parler into a more popular service, it's someone like him with a large established fan base not paying much attention to the affluent white people angry with him speaking "out of turn" rather than sticking to the standard Hollywood entertainer's approved narratives. He's big enough to not care what they think anymore.

He just needs to hire in some competent technical staff to scale it up, market it, add short form videos, and compete head on with TikTok and Instagram. Music is a natural fit for short form videos. Let Musk take "old people social media".

[dlhatheway]

@Found.Alpha "affluent white people angry with him speaking "out of turn""

Oh. I thought we were all upset and angry at Ye's anti-semitic statements. That's not a problem for you?

[gekko69]

@Found.Alpha He's now $1.5 Billion lighter and now worth maybe $300-$400 million so maybe not so good.

Much of his very over inflated reported media worth has disappeared.

[User 56360468]

@gekko69 I don't really care about media figures anymore than I do political figures, he's just another rich dude spouting off. Anytime somebody aims their anger at a demographic they're wrong, whether it's badmouthing jews or those on the left talking about the evils of "whiteness". He wasn't articulate enough to name the names of the people who cancelled his concerts or otherwise screwed with his career, and instead did exactly what his enemies wanted him to do. It sucks when you don't have the judgement to let a qualified PR flack do your talking for you.

Rich people genuinely think we care what they have to say. I suppose they think that because many do, because they don't get out much or know many people in their own community and spend way too much time watching celebrities and politicians.

He's already past the point of cancellation. It doesn't cost that much to put money towards future music talent and emerging hip hop artists aren't going to be picky when it comes to who's bankrolling their rise to stardom. They never are.

[munhoi]

Kanye needs to be under a Gaurdianship for his own protection IMHO kind of like whats her name

[User 56360468]

@munhoi Britney is free now. Kanye is pretty sane for Hollywood. He just likes to voice his views. The handlers usually keep their "high strung" (gross understatement) clients away from the cameras and you don't find out anything's wrong until they slam their car into a wall or go back to rehab.

[Drumboy]

Does Kanye lie like trump?? Can he lie like trump? Who cares how much money he has. Republicans will vote him in if he runs for president.

[kata]

@Drumboy He's got my vote, rofl

[munhoi]

hahaaa Kanye will lose all his wealth sooner then later - he has no clue what he is doing with Social Media , they sold him a pile of you know what IMHO

[buckiowa]

@munhoi I’m sure you have more money than Kanye 😂

[buckiowa]

@munhoi his net worth is 4 billion and you have ???

[SlowHandLuke]

Imagine the crazy when Candace Owens and Kanye get together, lol.

[buckiowa]

@SlowHandLuke Candace makes AOC & Stacey Abrams look uneducated and foolish.

Stacey went public with abortions help curb inflation … she can’t hide that comment.

She will get crushed in Georgia

[gekko69]

@buckiowa oh ya with Walker, MTG, Boebart, Lake
And Dr Oz
You can’t lose...

[dlhatheway]

@buckiowa ,

From Candace Owens bio:

Owens pursued an undergraduate degree in journalism at the University of Rhode Island.[1] She dropped out after her junior year because of an issue with her student loan.[1]

Yep, sure, way smarter than AOC and her BU degree.

By the way, her father-in-law is "Baron Farmer." Yes, a British peer. Poor, sad, underprivileged Candace, fighting uphill all the way.

Being black and shilling for the Mango Mussolini is good money.

From AOC's bio;
After graduating from high school, Ocasio-Cortez enrolled at Boston University. Her father died of lung cancer in 2008 during her second year,[23][24] and Ocasio-Cortez became involved in a lengthy probate battle to settle his estate. She has said that the experience helped her learn "first-hand how attorneys appointed by the court to administer an estate can enrich themselves at the expense of the families struggling to make sense of the bureaucracy".[25] During college, Ocasio-Cortez served as an intern for U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy in his section on foreign affairs and immigration issues.[26] She recalled, "I was the only Spanish speaker, and as a result, as basically a kid – a 19-, 20-year-old kid – whenever a frantic call would come into the office because someone is looking for their husband because they have been snatched off the street by ICE, I was the one that had to pick up that phone. I was the one that had to help that person navigate that system."[26] Ocasio-Cortez graduated cum laude[27] from Boston University in 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in both international relations and economics.[28][29][22][30]

[Dick Cod]

So how is the deal going? Investment bankers meeting to perform due diligence on Parler? How much equity does Kanye plan to contribute?
Serious investors want an update!

[Shourey01]

I don't know if Kenye is a fool or a con-man or both. He sure seems to know that blacks mouthing right-wing garbage, command a premium value in GOP universe. Maybe he is just cashing in.

[Higher Education Inquirer]

@Shourey01, cha-ching.

[maxwell.stainback]

Good. I hope to see Tucker wearing the latest foam yeezys

[Higher Education Inquirer]

Is Ye mentally competent enough to make business decisions?

[kata]

@Higher Education Inquirer his dollars say he is.

[1504661]

DWAC is a total failure - soon to be worthless.
and Parler is soon to be the next DWAC.

It's painfully obvious extremist republicans simply dont have the money
to create, run or maintain a social media empire.

The Confederacy isn't rising anytime soon.
It is clear our Constitution doesn't give Republicans "priority citizenship"
to them for appointing themselves as "chosen". Their "outrage" will dissipate.

[gogogoapple]

@1504661 it is that mentality that is causing the right to provide their own platforms. You all need your own echo chamber to keep believing that nonsense. Meanwhile people left and right are moving over to the gop because of the unpopular positions that are now mainstream in the DNC. Even Obama is call out this nonsense

[1504661]

" Ye " is allegedly a Conservative,
and Conservatives are presently a MINORITY party in the USA.
This extremist minority in our democracy has NO incentive to play by the rules
...because (as a minority) they are IMPOTENT to do so.

The ONLY hopes conservatives have
of resurrecting their backwards, flat-earth beliefs
are to further shamelessly spread their ridiculously false lies...
lies of healthcare being too complicated to fix/address.
lies of immigrants all being evil lazy criminals.
lies of a broken border/ a Mexican invasion into Texas.
lies of CRT being taught to children (It never has been).
lies of Biden "defunding" police. (No other potus has given more than Biden).
lies of Christian "persecution", etc.
lies of election fraud, etc.

...and they desperately need some type of social media to do so.

Since the Conservative minority is impotent to address real world solutions,
lies and conspiracies are all we hear from them.

[rungrandpa]

@1504661 You are a ray of sunshine. A real bridge builder.

[dlhatheway]

@rungrandpa ,

Unfortunately, there's quite a bit of truth in what he says.

Lazy, evil criminal immigrants? We've got countless homicides per week and the "conservative" FB groups I watch only mention the very few that involve an immigrant. DeathSantis made a big deal of spending millions to ship perfectly legal immigrants to MV. Where there's nothing for them. They were promised Boston by the lying scum that arranged the trip.

Broken border? Biden hasn't changed a thing, except he's being less cruel to the people who do arrive. It's funny to hear DeathSantis justifying his little stunt on account of a "border crisis" when Florida's borders are Georgia and Alabama. Immigrants from Cuba, of course, arriving by boat, get the red carpet treatment. They leave Cuba for the same reason people leave Guatemala or any other country; life there sucks.

CRT? Nothing but lies from the Right. Nobody teaches it outside of college and the US History taught at lower levels is nicely whitewashed. it's only when somebody accidentally mentions reality that the Right gets all butthurt and starts to complain about the school system and the teachers, who are now known in Rightard circles as "groomers."

Defunding the police? Has not happened. The police budget has INCREASED in Minneapolis, AS USUAL. Doesn't stop you from hearing about it, does it?

Christian persecution? LOL. The Christian Right gets the vapors when somebody says, "Happy Holidays!" They should focus their energy and efforts on the New Testament and what it has to say about things like the poor and public displays of piety. Their hypocrisy is creating atheists in record numbers.

Election fraud? Another fantasy. Trump's people fought 60 court cases, LOST EVERY ONE and still managed to whip enough Rightards into a frenzy to attach the Capitol during the certification of the election. Many Republican candidates have "fight election fraud" and "2020 was stolen" in their campaign platforms.

You want to build some bridges? Try embracing reality.

[rungrandpa]

@dlhatheway Nice DNC reply.