TechScape: Kanye’s dark twisted social media fantasy

TechScape: Kanye’s dark twisted social media fantasy

The artist now known as Ye wants to buy the ‘free-speech’ social network Parler after being banned from major sites. But hopes for a rightwing splinternet, where anything goes, is not so easy

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Kanye West is buying rightwing social network Parler for an undisclosed sum. From our story:

The purchase by the rapper, who legally changed his name to Ye last year, is expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year.

“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” he said in a statement.

The Competition and Markets Authority told Meta in November that the only way to resolve competition concerns was to dispose of Giphy, the largest supplier of animated gifs to social networks such as Snapchat, TikTok and Twitter, which it acquired two years ago for $400m (£290m).

Meta appealed against the decision, which the regulator said would “protect millions of social media users” and stop Facebook “increasing its significant power in social media”, which was upheld by the Competition Appeal Tribunal on five of the six grounds challenged.

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