The never-ending drama of ultra-rich people wanting to buy their own social media platforms continues. No, I’m not talking about Twitter and Elon Musk. Today Kayne West—now known as Ye—announced an “agreement in principle” to buy Parler, the controversial Twitter-like social media platform that positions itself as a bastion of free speech.
It’s unknown how long Ye has been planning on buying Parler, but the announcement comes after both Twitter and Instagram restricted his accounts last week for antisemitic posts. Twitter locked his account after one of the posts, and Instagram removed the offending post.
Announcing his intent to buy Parler, Ye said, “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.”
George Farmer, the CEO of Parlement Technologies, which owns Parler, praised the agreement in principle, calling Ye a “compatriot” and saying “Parlement will be honored to help him achieve his [free speech] goals.”
As for the business details, the release was careful to call Ye’s plan to buy Parler an “agreement in principle.” However, it said both parties would enter into a “definitive purchase agreement” and expect the deal to close by the end of 2022.
A purchase price was not mentioned, but Parlement said it will “include ongoing technical support” after the deal is done as well as the use of its private cloud services.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Grothaus is a novelist, journalist, and former screenwriter. His debut novel EPIPHANY JONES is out now from Orenda Books. You can read more about him at MichaelGrothaus.com
