After a whirlwind Month of racism, anti-Semitism and just downright quirks, Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, announced his intention to buy the right-wing extremist “freedom of speech” platform Parler.
Coincidentally, we know for sure that the CEO of the app is George Farmer, the husband of Kanye’s new best friend, conservative political pundit Candace Owens.
When announcing the deal yesterday, Parler’s parent company said that Kanye “took a groundbreaking step in the free speech media space and never again has to fear being removed from social media.”
“The proposed acquisition will secure Parler’s future role in creating a non-transferable ecosystem where all voices are welcome,” the company wrote in a statement. The deal is expected to close this coming quarter. The financial aspects of Kanye’s acquisition of Parler have not been disclosed.
In the past, billionaires and racists could just say what they wanted, knowing that the class they wanted to oppress would not yell at them for fear of retaliation or harm.
These are not those days. With his agreement to buy Parler, Kanye represents yet another conservative billionaire seeking to control and influence social media platforms, using the idea of free speech as a guise to continue fueling hate speech. and the bubbling up of right-wing ideologues.