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Paris (AFP) – The Parler social network, which is popular among the American far right and those close to former President Donald Trump, is in rapper Kanye West’s shopping cart.
The 45-year-old artist, who now goes by the name Ye, said in a statement that he wants to buy Parler to ensure that those with conservative political views “have the right to express themselves freely.”
Temporarily removed from the Apple and Google app stores last year for failing to moderate calls for violence following the attack on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, Parler is back in stock, though it remains far from competing with giants like Facebook or Twitter.
“status symbol”
Parler was launched in mid-2018 by John Matze, a computer engineer, and Rebekah Mercer, a major donor to the Republican Party.
Little known until 2021, the platform drew attention after Trump was expelled from Twitter, after he encouraged his followers there before the assault on Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021.
Ye’s purchase intent comes at a time when the rapper is facing accusations of racism and anti-Semitism, which have led to the restriction of his Twitter and Instagram accounts.
“By acquiring Parler, Kanye can ensure he can say what he wants,” said Joshua Tucker, co-director of New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics (CSMaP), and Megan Brown, an engineer at CSMaP, who noted that owning a social network can now become “a social status symbol” for billionaires.
Trump launched his own social network, Truth Social, earlier this year, while Elon Musk, the owner of Tesla and SpaceX, appears to want to close the deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion after trying to pull out of the business.
far away from facebook
Parler has been downloaded 8.5 million times since its launch, including 6.2 million times in the United States, according to data.ai.
In September, Parler added 58,000 downloads worldwide on Apple and Google’s online stores, a far cry from Facebook’s 72 million in the same month.
Parler did not respond to inquiries from the AFP news agency about its number of users and financial situation.
Trump doesn’t have an official Parler account, and West, who just opened it, already has 1,800 followers; against the 31 million he has on Twitter and the 18.2 million on Instagram.
Forbidden and then allowed
Parler was removed from the Apple and Google app stores over concerns about misinformation and potentially damaging rhetoric following the attack on Capitol Hill. Amazon Web Services (AWS) also disabled access to the platform.
Parler has been accepted back into the App Store since April 2021 and the Google Play Store since September 2021, apparently after bringing its content moderation systems in line with the policies of rival tech companies.
“It appears that there has been a change in Parler’s parameters rather than Google’s or Apple’s,” Tucker and Brown noted.
limited audience
Parler is one of many social networks targeting ultra-conservatives who object to the notion of platforms filtering dangerously inflammatory or misleading posts.
Parler’s rivals include Gettr, Gab, Rumble, and Truth Social, which had some technical issues after its release in February.
Trump’s social network was also not welcome in Google’s store for Android mobile devices until it improved its content moderation systems.
But the audience of these social networks is still limited. According to a recent study by the ‘Pew Research Center’, only 6% of Americans get information on a regular basis through one of these applications called “alternatives”.
with AFP
