Kanye “Ye” West is no longer acquiring Parler, the right-wing-friendly “free speech social media” platform.
The announcement of the termination of West’s deal to buy Parler came shortly after West appeared on Infowars, the show hosted by conspiracy-monger Alex Jones — where, among other things, West expressed admiration for Adolf Hitler and made antisemitic jokes about former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. West had already faced a major backlash in the past few months over his antisemitic statements, including losing his Adidas sneaker deal.
“Parlement Technologies has confirmed that the company has mutually agreed with Ye to terminate the intent of sale of Parler,” the company said in a statement Thursday. According to Parlement Technologies, the decision was made “in the interest of both parties” in mid-November.
The company added, “Parler will continue to pursue future opportunities for growth and the evolution of the platform for our vibrant community.”
West and Parler in October had announced the provisional deal for the music artist and entrepreneur to buy Parler. The parties expected it to close in the fourth quarter of 2022. “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 in a statement in October.
Founded in 2018, Parler boasts that it’s an “uncancelable free speech platform.” But two years ago, the pro-Trump app’s hands-off approach to content moderation resulted in Apple and Google banning Parler from their app stores — in the days after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — over what they said were Parler’s violations of their prohibitions on content that incites violence. Amazon also cut off its AWS hosting deal with Parler.
Apple’s App Store restored Parler in April 2021, after finding the app was better able to remove hate speech and violent content. Google Play Store finally agreed to re-list Parler in September.
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