Kanye West bought Parler – News – Hi-Tech – Kommersant

Rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, reached agreement in principle with Parlement Technologies to acquire the social network Parler. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The parties hope to close it before the end of the year.

Parler was created in 2018 and positions itself as a freer alternative to traditional social networks and services. Parler blocks only outright illegal content and at the same time collects much less user data than regular social networks. “In a world where conservative opinions are considered controversial, we need to make sure we have the right to express ourselves freely,” Ye said. Earlier, several social networks, including Twitter, blocked the artist’s accounts. Parler, on the other hand, has long had the image of “Twitter for the far right”.

Parler’s popularity began to rise in late 2020, during and after the US presidential election, when many Donald Trump supporters began to accuse opponents of trying to “steal the election.” At the end of December and beginning of January, the total number of users registered with Parler reached 15 million, and the number of active users was about 2.3 million. January 11, 2021 Parler was disabled from Amazon hosting, and later the service was removed from the App Store and Google Play in response to capture US Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The social network resumed work a month after the blackouts, and in early September of this year became known about the return of the Parler app to Google Play.

Kirill Sarkhanyants