Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, is said to acquire Parler, a social media platform. Parler was founded in 2018 and grew rapidly during the 2020 elections. The app is known to be popular among conservatives. Parlement Technologies, parent to Parler, announced that "Ye is making a groundbreaking move into free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again."
Like Ye, Parler too has been banned. Days after the January 6th riots, the app was banned from App Store, Google Play, and Amazon for failure to regulate posts which clearly encourage and incite violence. The app has since been reinstated after modified policy changes were made.
Ye was banned by Instagram after an anti-Semitic posts were made. The content was later deleted and a temporary ban placed on his account. Weeks later, Ye was banned from Twitter as well for anti-Semitic speech. Ye's opinions have been controversial as of late including the shirt he wore, which displayed "white lives matter", during a runway presentation of his ninth Yeezy collection at Paris fashion week and Ye's comments towards George Floyd's death.
Musk's move to purchase Twitter and Ye's move to acquire Parler, highlight how few men are able to acquire large companies and control these corporations according to their whim. These acquisitions come as a movement to remove bans on content, after both Musk and Ye have found themselves blocked for their speech. This sparks an interesting conversation as to what free speech on social media entails, when these men have the ability to influence millions of users. Rather than ownership bias, stricter laws on content moderation might help to streamline free speech and prevent the spread of misinformation.
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