Kanye West Agrees to Buy Parler, but Will Losing His Billionaire Status Change That?

Kanye West landed in hot water in recent weeks after a string of antisemitic remarks and volatile behavior. However, his response to things has been anything but apologetic. The rapper and entrepreneur even agreed to buy Parler, a conservative social media platform that preaches free speech. But will Kanye West still buy Parler after losing his billionaire status?

For those unaware of what is going on, Kanye West, now known as Ye, uttered hateful antisemitic comments recently, which has had major blowback. He has lost partnerships and found people and companies cutting ties with him at an alarming rate. That includes Adidas, which stands to lose around $250 million because of it.

“Adidas does not tolerate antisemitism and any other sort of hate speech,” said the company. “Ye’s recent comments and actions have been unacceptable, hateful and dangerous, and they violate the company’s values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness.”

The reason Adidas is such a major deal for Kanye is that the deal made up the majority of his net worth. While the deal was in place, his estimated worth was $2 billion, but $1.5 billion of that was due to the Adidas partnership. So, while it will be a major loss to the company, it is a much larger hit to him.

But what impact will this loss of wealth have on Kanye’s plan to buy Parler?

Parler, known as a right-wing-friendly platform, cropped up as people claimed unfair treatment by Twitter and other mainstream applications. Similar platforms include Gettr, which is run by a former Trump advisor, and Truth Social, an app founded by Donald Trump.

The idea to purchase Parler originally came after Kanye received penalties from Instagram and Twitter, mainly in response to his remarks about Jewish people. In one tweet, which saw him restricted on the platform, Kanye said that he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”

While there are no specifics available about the deal between Kanye and Parler, it was expected to close by the end of the year before he lost his partnership with Adidas. Perhaps that will not change, especially since it seems to offer Kanye the ability to procure a space where he can say whatever he wants.

Moreover, there are people supporting the purchase, including Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer, who is married to American conservative activist Candace Owens. Owens is known to be one of Kanye’s advocates on social media, while Farmer has made his support of the purchase clear.

“Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again,” Farmer said in a statement. “Once again, Ye proves that he is one step ahead of the legacy media narrative. Parlement will be honored to help him achieve his goals.”

Other supporters include the CEO of Truth Social, Devin Nunes, and Donald Trump. Nunes said that they welcomed the purchase by Kanye, also commenting that it is “absolutely necessary” for Americans to have free speech and the ability to voice their political views.

But will Kanye West buy Parler despite losing his billionaire status? Possibly. While the blowback is ongoing and unlikely to let up, the same behavior that has him under public scrutiny is the motivation behind him buying Parler in the first place. The question then becomes, if he does buy it, will it become a place where he can truly say whatever he wants?