Kanye West has agreed to buy conservative Twitter alternative Parler in the midst of continued controversy from the troubled star. CNBC. West, who legally changed his name to 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,”. West has been locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts due to accusations of antisemitism. West has the money to buy Parler as his net worth is estimated at $2 billion. Parler emerged as one of many conservative alternatives to Twitter but was briefly banned by Apple and Google Play.
My Comment:
In interests of disclosure I have an account at Parler. It is not very active. I also have accounts on Twitter and Gab and both of those accounts have a lot more interactions, views and link clicks than I have ever gotten from Parler. Indeed, Parler was so dead that I almost considered closing my account (or simply no longer posting there) and moving to Donald Trump's Truth Social, but I have mostly been too lazy to do so.
This move might be a good one from Parler's perspective. Kanye West obviously has some deep pockets and this is the first time they have been in the news for quite some time. The move by Apple and Google Play to ban the app pretty much killed the user base and the advent of Truth Social and Gettr have hurt the brand. With West they will be getting some much needed capital and attention.
But for West it makes very little sense. It seems like he thinks that his legion of fans will follow him to Parler, and I don't know if that is true. Indeed, Parler is so dead that I don't even know if this move will help things. Social media is largely dependent on existing networks so I don't know if people will want to give up Twitter just for him. Indeed, some people might be upset with this enough that they could quit Parler in response.
Of course the elephant in the room is that West is currently undergoing what appears to be a mental breakdown. He has been accused of anti-Semitism, and some of those accusations actually seem legitimate. He also is pushing the buttons of the far left, even daring to criticize the George Floyd case, which was his latest controversy before the Parler news was announced. West has always been erratic, but he usually had good sense to not hurt his brand, and his most recent comments absolutely have.
It really does seem that West just wants a place where he can post about the Jews without getting banned and he is buying Parler to do it. If that's not what he is doing than I would be surprised at this point, but I do have to concede that he is a billionaire and has amassed a huge fortune. Total idiots can't do that. But then again, total idiots also don't bash the Jews on American social media either. I support his right to free speech, but man, he's not making friends here.
What really gets me is that if he wanted a place to trash Jewish people, he could have easily joined Gab. Gab doesn't really censor anything other than actual illegal content (and pornography, strangely enough,) so if he made an account there he probably could say whatever he wanted without it being an issue. Parler isn't anywhere near as free speech as Gab is and I would think before he bought the company he would have been banned for what he posted about the Jews. Of course, I don't think Gab is actually up for sale though.
As for conservative social media right now, I think it's a mess and that this probably isn't going to help. There are just too many networks running at once and they all compete with each other. Plus, conservatives are still present in huge numbers on Twitter itself. The presence of four major social networks, Gab, Parler, Gettr and Truth Social, all competing with each other and with Twitter itself, means that everything is pretty damn disorganized.
Finally, I have to point out that this could just be some kind of stunt. Kanye West is saying a lot of crazy things lately and it's costing him financially, but it could all be in service of something bigger. What that could be is beyond me, but he has done this in the past. Though it is also possible that his bipolar disorder has finally gotten the better of him. Regardless, it's always strange writing about the man, as I have no appreciation of his music whatsoever. He just keeps making the news, and sometimes it's affecting the world in fairly interesting and impactful ways.
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