Kanye Is Buying an App That’s Been Hemorrhaging Users for a Year
An analysis of Comscore Media data by The Righting has found that right-wing alternative social media platform Parler suffered a 48-percent decline in unique visitors this September compared to September a year ago. The floundering platform recently announced a pending acquisition by rapper Kanye West.
Other right-wing platforms and websites have also experienced a significant slump in user traffic. Breitbart’s traffic is down 58 percent, The Federalist is down 60 percent, and the Blaze is down 55 percent. Virtually every right-wing website examined by The Righting lost unique visitors year-over-year, with the Epoch Times and the Washington Examiner being the only exceptions.
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Alternative social media platforms also saw a general decline in engagement, with only Gettr seeing an increase in year-over-year unique visitors. Data for Truth Social is unavailable as the website has been live for less than a year.
The news of Parler’s nose dive in usership comes on the eve of a major acquisition. Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer, husband of right-wing commentator (and close friend to Kanye West) Candace Owens, has said the potential sale of Parler to West “will change the world, and change the way the world thinks about free speech. Ye is making a groundbreaking move into the free speech media space and will never have to fear being removed from social media again.”
The platform, launched in 2018, billed itself as a censorship-free alternative to platforms like Twitter. Following revelations that organizers of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot relied heavily on the app, several hosting services, including Amazon Web Services, pulled their services, resulting in a temporary shutdown from which Parler has not managed to recover.
When questioned on West’s recent spate of antisemitic comments, Farmer responded that West is “obviously willing to have conversations that plenty of people want to have. I think he’s trying to engage in the free speech environment. … I would like to say he’s now in a place where he’s fallen victim to the cancellation narrative. Whether or not what he said offended some people, of course, is up for conversation.”
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