The right-wing social media site Parler on Friday is now under new ownership and has temporarily shuttered amid what it described as a “strategic reassessment” of the business, the company said in a statement.
Parler was purchased by Starboard, a Virginia-based firm, which in a statement posted on the shuttered website signaled it will widen its reach beyond its right-wing audience.
Starboard described Parler as “the world’s pioneering ‘uncancelable’ free speech platform” but acknowledged that “No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more.”
The app became popular among Jan. 6 insurrections and previously sought Kanye West as a potential buyer, Forbes reports.
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“Parler’s large user base and additional strategic assets represent an enormous opportunity for Starboard to continue to build aggressively in our media and publishing business,” Starboard CEO Ryan Coyne said in a statement.
“The team at Parler has built an exceptional audience and we look forward to integrating that audience across all of our existing platforms.”
Starboard said it plans to use AI to expand its reach to “begin servicing unsupported online communities – building a home for them away from the ad-hoc regulatory hand of platforms that hate them.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed but the company said it “expects the deal to be accretive by the end of Q2 2023.”
“While the Parler app as it is currently constituted will be pulled down from operation to undergo a strategic assessment, we at Starboard see tremendous opportunities across multiple sectors to continue to serve marginalized or even outright censored communities – even extending beyond domestic politics,” the company said.
