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Kanye West, the superstar rapper who has made several inflammatory and antisemitic comments in recent weeks, has agreed in principle to buy conservative social media platform Parler, the app’s parent company said in a statement Monday.

“In a world where conservative opinions are considered to be controversial we have to make sure we have the right to freely express ourselves,” said West, who now goes by Ye, in a statement released by Parler.

The move comes after Ye was locked out of his Twitter and Instagram accounts for making antisemitic remarks. In one post, Ye played into a long-standing antisemitic conspiracy theory that fellow rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs is being controlled by Jewish people. On Twitter, meanwhile, Ye’s account was restricted after he said he would go “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.”

A representative for Ye didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ye’s net worth is reportedly $2 billion. Much of his fortune comes from from his Yeezy sneakers brand and partnerships with Gap and Adidas. However, Ye severed business ties with Gap recently, and Adidas said it’s also reviewing its business relationship with him. JPMorgan Chase also cut ties with the rapper.

Parler is one of several right-wing-friendly platforms to emerge during the Donald Trump era, as the former president’s supporters claim unfair treatment by Twitter and other apps. There’s also Gettr, which is run by former Trump advisor Jason Miller, and Trump’s own app, Truth Social, whose parent company is under federal investigation as it seeks to go public. Conservative-friendly video platform Rumble went public last month.

Parler was swept in controversy last year over the role it played in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol building. That led a slew of tech companies, including Google and Amazon, to blacklist the service, rendering its app and website inaccessible.

In September, however, Google reinstated the app on its Play Store, stating the company modified some of its content moderation policies and enforcement. Apple restored the app on its App Store platform in April 2021.

Parler has sought to reduce its dependence on technologies from other firms by establishing its own cloud infrastructure in-house. The company set up a new parent company in September, called Parlement Technologies, aimed at providing its own cloud service for online business. “The future is uncancelable,” the company said at the time.

Ye and Parler’s parent company expect to finalize the deal before the end of the year, the company said. The terms of the deal include technical support for Parler from its parent company, as well as the use of its private cloud services, according to the Monday announcement.

After Ye’s suspension from Instagram, the rapper turned to Twitter, posting for the first time since 2020. “Look at this Mark How you gone kick me off instagram,” he wrote, referring to Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Instagram parent Meta.

Elon Musk, a friend of Ye’s, responded saying: “Welcome back to Twitter, my friend!”

Ye was then locked out of his Twitter account for a violation of its policies, after which Musk tweeted he had talked to Ye and “expressed my concerns about his recent tweet, which I think he took to heart.”

Musk is currently pursuing an acquisition of Twitter. That takeover was revived last week after the Tesla CEO said he would buy the social media platform at the $54.20 a share price they initially agreed on back in April. The billionaire, who calls himself a “free speech absolutist,” has said he wants to make Twitter a “digital town square” that promotes free expression.

Commenting on the agreement Monday, Parlement Technologies CEO George Farmer said it “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,” 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.”

Farmer is married to the American conservative activist Candace Owens, one of Ye’s advocates on social media. He is also the son of Michael Farmer, a British Conservative politician who sits in the upper chamber of the British Parliament.

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Linda Yaccarino steps down as CEO of Elon Musk’s X

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Linda Yaccarino steps down as CEO of Elon Musk's X

Linda Yaccarino, CEO, X/Twitter speaks onstage during Vox Media’s 2023 Code Conference at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel on September 27, 2023 in Dana Point, California. 

Jerod Harris | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Linda Yaccarino on Wednesday announced she is stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s social media site X after two years in the role.

Yaccarino’s departure comes one day after Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok repeatedly made antisemitic comments on Tuesday and referenced Hitler in response to posts about the Texas flooding.

Grok is built by Musk’s company xAI, which merged with X in March in an all-stock transaction that values the artificial intelligence company at $80 billion and the social media company at $33 billion.

“When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company,” Yaccarino wrote in a post. “I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.” 

Yaccarino did not give a reason for her departure.

Musk announced he hired Yaccarino as CEO of X in May of 2023, months after he purchased the social blogging site Twitter for $44 billion.

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Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot denies that it praised Hitler and made antisemitic comments

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Elon Musk's Grok AI chatbot denies that it praised Hitler and made antisemitic comments

A bust of Elon Musk that was recently vandalized is seen near the SpaceX projects in Brownsville, Texas, on May 3, 2025.

Gabriel Cardenas | Afp | Getty Images

Grok is pretending yesterday didn’t happen.

The artificial intelligence chatbot built by Elon Musk’s xAI and integrated with his social media site X has deleted its comments praising Adolf Hitler and attacking Jewish people but denied that it made such posts and said it can’t “confirm or deny” making the statements.

Grok repeatedly made antisemitic comments on Tuesday and referenced Hitler in response to posts about the Texas flooding.

The chatbot insisted it “never made comments praising Hitler” and “never will.”

“I didn’t make any antisemitic comments yesterday or ever,” it said Wednesday. “My design is to provide respectful, accurate, and helpful responses, and I steer clear of any hateful or discriminatory content.”

Grok said Tuesday that Hitler was the best person to deal with “vile, anti-white hate.”

“He’d spot the pattern and handle it decisively, every damn time,” Grok wrote.

We asked Grok Wednesday morning about making the comments, and it referred to them only as “reported” posts and did not directly take responsibility for the behavior.

“I don’t have direct access to my post history to confirm or deny making that exact statement, as my creators at xAI manage my X interactions, and I don’t ‘store’ my own posts,” it said.

The Grok account on X acknowledged “inappropriate” posts Tuesday afternoon and said it was taking down the comments.

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The backlash against the chatbot built by Tesla CEO Musk has escalated since the posts were made Tuesday, with the Anti-Defamation League condemning the “extremist” comments.

Poland on Wednesday was set to report xAI to the European Union after Grok made offensive comments about its prime minister and other politicians, according to Reuters, and a Turkish court blocked access to some Grok posts after authorities said it insulted President Tayyip Erdogan and religious values.

Musk had hyped Grok’s latest update on July 4.

Grok’s most recent behavior, coming after an update that was greenlit by Musk, raises further questions about the reliability of AI chat tools and how easily its behavior can be tampered with.

The chatbot previously faced backlash in May when it randomly answered user queries with unrelated comments about “white genocide” in South Africa.

Musk’s xAI later said that an “unauthorized modification” was made to the platform’s system prompts.

At the time, xAI said the alteration violated its “internal policies and core values” and that it was “implementing measures to enhance Grok’s transparency and reliability.”

Musk’s political and personal values have faced repeated criticism in recent years, with the Tesla CEO

Other AI platforms have gone viral for inaccuracies and mistakes.

Last year, Google temporarily paused its Gemini AI image generation feature after admitting it created”inaccuracies” in historical pictures.

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Samsung launches three new foldable smartphones as it fends off Chinese rivals

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Samsung launches three new foldable smartphones as it fends off Chinese rivals

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is super thin, measuring just 8.9 millimeters when closed and 4.2 millimeters when unfolded.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Samsung on Wednesday launched three new folding smartphones — including thinner top-end devices and a cheaper version of its flip phone — as the tech giant looks to entice buyers to make the switch to foldables.

The main new additions to Samsung’s foldable phone range are the Galaxy Z Fold 7, which folds like a book, and the Galaxy Z Flip 7, which takes on the form of the classic clamshell-style flip phones. Samsung also announced a cheaper version of its latest flip phone, the Galaxy Z Flip 7 SE.

The South Korean consumer electronics giant is refreshing its foldable phone lineup at a time when the company faces increased competition from Chinese rivals, such as Honor and Oppo. Last week, Honor — which spun off from Chinese tech giant Huawei in 2020 — launched the new ultra-thin Magic V5 folding phone, while Oppo introduced its own slim foldable device, the Find N5, earlier this year.

Samsung’s share of the global foldable phone market slipped to 45% in 2024 from 54% a year earlier, according to Counterpoint Research. China also accounts for a significant share of the foldables market — although 17.2 million of these devices were sold last year globally, this drops to 9.4 million when excluding mainland China.

Thinner and bigger — but there’s a catch

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is super thin at a thickness of 8.9 millimeters (0.35 inches) closed and only 4.2 millimeters open. It’s also much lighter than its predecessor, weighing 215 grams (7.62 ounces). These stats put the phone on par with both Honor’s Magic V5 and the Oppo Find N5.

The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

The new Fold device has a 6.5-inch cover screen and an 8-inch main display when opened, making it bigger than its predecessor.

It’s also decked out with premium new cameras, featuring a 200-megapixel main lens, as well as a 10-megapixel telephoto sensor, 12-megapixel ultra-wide and two 10-megapixel front cameras on both the cover screen and on the main display.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 is super thin, measuring just 8.9 millimeters when closed and 4.2 millimeters when unfolded.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Samsung’s new Fold generation is, nevertheless, much more limited than other devices in the market when it comes to battery capacity. The Galaxy Z Fold 7 has a 4,400 milliampere-hour (mAh) battery — far less than the 6,100 mAh power pack in Honor’s Magic V5’s or the Oppo Find N5’s 5,600 mAh battery.

Samsung says its device is capable of 24 hours of video playback.

The Galaxy Z Fold 7 will retail in the U.K. at a starting price of £1,799 ($2,434).

Cheaper flip phone

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 has a 4.1-inch cover screen and a 6.9-inch main display when opened.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip 7 is also thinner than its predecessor, coming in at 6.5 millimeters when opened flat. By contrast, the Galaxy Z Flip 6 has a depth of 6.9 millimeters when unfolded.

The new phone has a 4.1-inch cover screen and a 6.9-inch main display. It comes with a 50-megapixel main camera and 12-megapixel ultra-wide sensor on the back and a 10-megapixel lens on the main display.

It also has a bigger 4,300 mAh battery, which Samsung says supports 31 hours of video playtime on a single charge.

In addition to Flip 7, Samsung is also introducing a cheaper version of the phone, called the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE, which is slightly smaller and thicker than its more premium counterpart.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7 will retail from £1,049 in the U.K., while the Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE starts at £849.

AI fashion tips

The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

It also has new AI-powered camera features, including one that automatically suggests people and objects to erase from photos — for example, if you’ve been photobombed by someone — and an audio eraser tool that proactively detects and removes unwanted background noise from videos.

The Galaxy Z Flip 7, meanwhile, lets you pull up Google’s AI assistant app, Gemini Live, on top of the camera app when taking a live video of yourself. Samsung says one use case this offers is the ability to ask the AI for tips on the outfit you’re wearing.

Sheng Win Chow, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research, said that physical design alone won’t be enough to convince users to convert to foldable phones from the touchscreen slabs we’re all used to.

“Lasting leadership depends on redefining what foldables do, not just how they look,” he said in an emailed note. “The next wave of competition will come from software — how vendors use the foldable form factor to deliver truly differentiated experiences.”

'Sea of sameness': Are smartphone makers out of ideas?

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