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Kanye West is buying the social media hellsite Parler after the rapper was kicked off Instagram and Twitter for an antisemitic post, the platform’s parent company announced Monday.
The troubled rapper appears to be framing the purchase as a means of defending free speech, with Parler itself having previously been subjected to several bans by Google and Apple over the role it played in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“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 said in a news release announcing the deal. The statement from Parlement Technologies said West is taking a “bold stance against his recent censorship from Big Tech” and would “further lead the fight to create a truly non-cancelable environment.”