President Donald Trump started his own platform, Truth Social, after getting kicked off of Twitter, which Elon Musk then made a deal to purchase because of its censorship of conservative voices. Now, after also being cut off from Twitter, rapper and producer Kanye West, who now goes simply by "Ye," is moving to purchase Parler.
In a recent email, CEO George Farmer announced that Parler Technologies "has entered into an agreement in principle to sell Parler to Ye [who], like Parler, has faced senseless and unnecessary censorship and cancelation by Big Tech."
"Much like Elon musk, Kanye feels marginalized and left out of the political conversation," responds Brian Bradley of the Media Research Center's Free Speech America.
He notes that some of Ye's posts have admittedly been concerning, including his tweet on October 8, 2022 saying, "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."
His Twitter account was reportedly locked because of the first part of that tweet.
But his association with conservative Candace Owens – with whom he recently posted a picture wearing matching "White Lives Matter" T-shirts at a Paris fashion show – or his unapologetic pro-life stance likely contributed to Twitter's decision to ban him.
"Liberals are coming after them," Bradley asserts. So Ye, with a "passion for free speech and independent thought," wants to purchase Parler and, in Farmer's words, "strengthen our ability to create an uncancelable ecosystem."
The free speech advocate says the plan to silence conservatives is backfiring.
"Censorship is having the opposite effect than intended," Bradley notices. Twitter, he says, kind of pushed Ye away, but in purchasing Parler, "he can get a lot more fire charge now."
Bradley recalls that Twitter initially billed itself as the free speech wing of the free speech party, but it has morphed into censorship central of the cancel culture party.
"Parler, on the other hand, bills itself as the worlds pioneering uncancelable free-speech platform," he add. "So you have two totally disparate factions now, and you could see a lot more content on Parler that liberals despise."
Meanwhile, Musk's purchase of Twitter has yet to be finalized, as both parties have continued their costly legal battle for several months now. Twitter has accused the multibillionaire of being a "model of bad faith," while he has accused the company of running a "scheme" to mislead investors.
