The company behind Parler, an alternative social media platform that primarily caters to the far right, announced Monday that musical artist Kanye “Ye” West had agreed to purchase the site, days after Twitter and Instagram locked the rapper’s accounts over a string of antisemitic remarks.
West’s planned acquisition of the platform exemplifies a deeper problem with the way the flow of information exists online—it is subject to the whims and persuasions of a select group of ultra-wealthy people, with few meaningful mechanisms of accountability available to keep them in check.
A past-his-prime rap star moving to buy a third-tier social media site—run by the husband of his far-right conspiracy theorist friend Candace Owens—is not a sign of tidal change in online influence. But as a slew of red-pilled billionaires with a yen for authoritarianism (Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, former President Donald Trump) chisel their way into the social media market, it’s even more urgent to assess the power and influence that’s consolidated at the top levels of these companies.
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These private organizations serve, in great part, as our public squares, and yet there is almost no public oversight over how these companies are run.
And just as we have little reason to believe Mark Zuckerberg or Jack Dorsey are truly acting with the public’s interests in mind, we have no reason to trust that West will use Parler in a way that will make it any less destructive, nor Musk with Twitter, Thiel with Rumble, or Trump with Truth Social. All of them claim to be making these investments, in part, to defend “free speech,” which is the natural conclusion to a false narrative alleging that mainstream platforms are engaging in systemic censorship against the voices of conservatives. To the surprise of no one, this means far-right disinformation-peddling voices will benefit.
Even the ostensibly “responsible” social media platforms have consistently neglected to act on glaring problems until facing media scrutiny, threats of regulation, or risks to their profits.
Today’s information infrastructure is held and directed by a small pocket of influence, seemingly immune to consequences and indifferent to its impacts on global society. While some platforms insist they’re a force for good—stating their commitments to free speech, enabling democracy, or other laudable pursuits—ownership is made up of flawed individuals who wield disproportionate influence. A tech bro billionaire or an unhinged rapper dabbling in antisemitism can make decisions that change history—without democratic oversight.
Researchers of misinformation and extremism have pleaded with the heads of these companies for years to be allowed to access internal data, so that they can more accurately diagnose problems. But they’re most often met with shrugs and silence.
Parler’s web traffic pales in comparison to other alternative platforms, let alone major ones, and it is unlikely that West will be able to attract and sustain enough users to the platform to meaningfully enhance its status in the broader social media ecosystem. The target audience for Parler has largely moved on, now existing on platforms like Trump’s Truth Social, the exclusive platform for the MAGA faithful’s Dear Leader’s posts.
That said, West and Parler are a suitable match for the moment. Parler, selling itself as a “free speech” utopia online, harbors gobs of antisemitism (among other extremist rhetoric) in the name of free expression. Now that West is going all-in on far-right conspiracy theories, that audience is scrambling to co-opt him as one of its own.
West was recently feted with a patty cake interview by Fox News host Tucker Carlson (who omitted the rapper’s most inflammatory comments from the broadcast show), and has for years been praised by younger white nationalists, like Nicholas Fuentes.
“Clearly I saw something and heard something that not many other people did,” Fuentes said in an Oct, 9 Twitter Space after West was interviewed by Carlson. “He’s the only real one. He put on the MAGA hat and now he’s naming them [Jews].”
Whether West can draw a substantial audience to Parler remains to be seen, but something West once rapped holds true: “No one man should have all that power.”
Social media platforms wield tremendous influence over the modern world, as evidenced by the damage they’ve caused to public health, safety, and democracy. Without meaningful regulation, we are stuck trusting that actors who time and again have failed are serious now—that Lucy won’t yank away the football this time.
But these platforms are untrustworthy and unaccountable to the public. And everything they’re not makes them everything they are.
