Parler bought by conservative news publisher after Kanye West deal fell through
Christopher Hutton
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The conservative social network Parler was purchased by a new buyer after its deal with the rapper Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, fell through.
Parler’s parent company, Parlement Technologies, announced on Friday it agreed to sell the app to Starboard, the publisher of conservative news websites that include BizPac Review and American Wire News. The website will go down temporarily as Starboard finalizes its plans for updating the platform.
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The acquisition offers Starboard a chance to serve “unsupported online communities by building a home for them away from the ad hoc regulatory hand of platforms that hate them,” CEO Ryan Coyne told the Wall Street Journal.
The two companies declined to detail the specific amount paid. Parler CEO George Farmer will leave the company, and Parler Chief Development Officer Igor Shalkevich will take over as leader.
Ye offered to acquire Parler in October after his Instagram and Twitter accounts were suspended. The deal is believed to have occurred due to Ye’s relationship with Farmer’s wife, conservative pundit Candace Owens.
The two parties “mutually agreed” in November to end the plan for Ye to purchase the app.
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Parler made headlines in January 2021 after Apple and Google removed the app from their app stores and Amazon Web Services removed the service from its cloud computing services. The Big Tech companies claimed Parler had not done enough to stop or block posts inciting the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. Google and Apple have since reinstated Parler in their app stores.