SAN FRANCISCO — Kanye West, the rapper and fashion designer known for his divisive cultural and political commentary, is no longer buying Talk, the social media service that bills itself as a platform for free speech and is popular among right-wing audiences, the company said. Thursday.
Mr West, who goes by the name Ye, agreed to buy Parler for an undisclosed sum in October, days after Instagram and Twitter restricted his accounts in response to anti-Semitic comments he shared on the platforms. The deal set up Ye alongside Elon Musk, who was buying Twitter, as prominent figures who would own a social media company, giving them personal outlets to assert their views on speaking out on platforms.
But Ye’s deal for Parler fell apart in mid-November, a spokeswoman for Parler said. The social media service, which is owned by Parliament Technologies, did not say why the sale to Ye was not moving forward.
“Parler Technologies has confirmed that the Company has mutually agreed with Ye to terminate Parler’s intention to sell,” a spokeswoman for Parler said in a statement. She added that Parler will “continue to seek out future opportunities for growth and platform evolution for our vibrant community.”
Ye could not immediately be reached for comment.
In October, Ye said he would use Parler to ensure conservative voices were heard. “In a world where conservative views are seen as controversial, we need to make sure we have the right to express ourselves freely,” he said.
More about Kanye West
Kanye West, the rapper and fashion designer who now calls himself Ye, has been at the center of several controversies.
Since then, Ye has continued to spread anti-Semitic messages. Several fashion brands, including Adidas, broke deals with him because of these posts.
On Thursday, Ye appeared on a podcast hosted by Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones, during which Ye praised Adolf Hitler.
“Every human being has a value that they brought to the table, especially Hitler,” Ye said during the interview, which took place about two weeks after having dinner with former President Donald J. Trump at him at Mar-a-Lago, accompanied by Nick Fuentes, an outspoken anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.
Restrictions on Ye’s Twitter account were lifted last month. He was welcomed back to the platform by Mr. Musk, who had completed his acquisition of the social media service.
Mr. Musk responded to one of Ye’s first tweets after returning to the platform with a message who toyed with Ye’s name: “Don’t kill what you hate, save what you love.”
Ye celebrated his comeback on Twitter, posting frequently on the service. “I love the First Amendment!” he tweeted Thursday. “I pray to Jesus that Elon is for real…”
His account on Parler has been largely inactive for the past few days. Ye’s last post on Parler was a week ago, when he shared the hashtag “#YE24,” hinting at another presidential race. (While running for the nation’s highest office in 2020, he missed the deadline to be on the ballot in many states and received only about 60,000 votes.)
Talk, which launched in 2018 and is based in Nashville, is known as an alternative and all-around social media site. It became popular among those who said they were censored on mainstream platforms for holding right-wing views. Backed by right-wing activist and heiress Rebekah Mercer, Parler was once the most downloaded app on Apple’s App Store, making its resistance to strict content rules a selling point and attracting millions of fans from Mr. Trump in the process.
Last year, Apple, Amazon and Google kicked Parler off their platforms after the app harbored calls for violence around the time of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. Apple and Google later restored the site to their app stores, but it struggled to maintain a large user base.
When Parler returned to the Google Play Store in September, Christina Cravens, Chief Marketing Officer for Parler, said in a statement, “While Parler believes the best way to address the issues of hate and division in the culture of ‘today is about allowing more talk, not less, we are always happy to do business with those who think differently, on terms we agree to.
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