There’s an odd aspect to the announcement on Monday that Ye, the musician born Kanye West, plans to buy the social media platform Parler. It’s not just that the company’s current CEO is the husband of conservative commentator Candace Owens, a longtime friend of Ye’s. But the announcement was framed in a way that reveals an awful lot about why the political right is chafing at existing social media platforms.
The announcement includes a quote from Ye: “In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves.” That’s followed by commentary from the company, arguing that the purchase “will assure Parler a future role in creating an uncancelable ecosystem where all voices are welcome.”
Ye wasn’t canceled by Instagram or Twitter, mind you. He simply shared explicitly antisemitic comments that the platforms decided to remove in keeping with their policies about hate speech. Owens tried to defend Ye’s original post about going “death con 3″ on “JEWISH PEOPLE” by suggesting, among other things, that the apparent reference to DEFCON indicated Ye was going on defense, not offense. The days since have made clear that Ye wants to be seen as actively battling against perceived Jewish agents of control — a centuries-old staple of antisemitic rhetoric.
But he and Parler frame this as “conservative opinion” and simply a “voice” that should be made welcome. And that gets at the heart of the push in recent...
Apple is set to pay $250 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the company of overselling Siri's artificial intelligence abilities on newer iPhones. According to MacRumors, the proposed class-actio...