Rapper Kanye West has been the center of controversy recently. First, he wore a White Lives Matter t-shirt, which got a bunch of people fired up and calling him nasty names. Then he tweeted about going “Def con 3” on Jewish people. His Twitter and Instagram accounts were locked for that nonsense.
What was West’s response? He said he’ll buy Parler.
West evidently believes that owning his own social media platform will give him free speech, and Parler is the target because it promises to be the “uncancelable free speech platform.” He joins Elon Musk and Donald Trump who have similar beliefs. Musk wants to buy Twitter and Trump launched Truth Social earlier this year after being booted from Twitter, Snapchat, and other social media platforms last year.
What do the folks on Twitter think about Kanye West? Let’s have a look.
I’m not even a fan of his music.
Yeah, it’s really all about royalties.
But he’s in good company.
Just when you thought the plot couldn’t thicken.
I’m sure Walt is laughing right now.
Like two peas in a pod.
But what does any of this have to do with crypto? Glad you asked.
Parler is supposedly a crypto-friendly platform. But it’s still centralized, which means it can’t be censorship-free or censorship-resistant. Kanye West, as owner, may be able to exercise his freedom to say whatever wants without fear of cancellation, but what if someone disagree with Kanye? Would he censor someone on his platform for crossing an invisible line? Nevermind whether he would; the truth is, he could. And that’s the problem with centralization. Parler users must trust that Kanye West won’t go DEFCON 1 on them.
The same could be said of Elon Musk’s Twitter and Donald Trump’s Truth Social. What these prominent lip flappers want and what they say they want are at odds. What they really want is control; what they say they want is freedom. If they truly wanted freedom, they’d migrate to Hive or Bastyon.
Snark and commentary in italics. Inclusion of an item does not mean I agree or endorse the ideas presented. Of course, it also doesn’t mean I don’t.
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First published at Cryptocracy. Not to be construed as financial advice. Do your own research.
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