The Substack Problem

Nazis Ruin Everything

Hello all, quickly popping in this weekend to set aside the usual frivolity for just a moment.

As some of you may be aware, there has been a lot of online discussion concerning the presence of Nazis on Substack. A couple of weeks ago an open letter was circulated demanding that Substack management address the issue. They finally responded to the letter earlier this week, and it was disappointing as hell. When the second paragraph begins with “I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. But…” you know it’s not going in a good direction.

Their excuse contained lots of free sharing of expression pablum, but it’s unsatisfactory. The platform restricts content from sex workers, but Nazis are OK? To be clear, this is not a First Amendment issue. As a private company, Substack has every right to set whichever restrictions they choose. It’s telling that they’re not drawing a line in the sand here.

Since the response has been released I have seen the writers of multiple Substacks that I subscribe to vow to find a new platform. I’m not sure what to do myself. I can easily rationalize staying here because since this is a free newsletter, Substack is not making any money from me. Besides, since my following is small, I’m barely a cog in the wheel. My staying or leaving has literally no impact on things around here. On the other hand, does it feel right to remain at a place that shows little remorse for providing a platform for hate speech?

For now, I intend to wait things out & see how it plays out while keeping an eye open to see if/when writers that I follow do in fact move elsewhere. Would a different platform work for me? I’d hate for this to replicate the disillusion of Twitter, with multiple alternatives fighting for a piece of the pie, but none yet able to solidly establish themselves. (That’s why I offer Bluesky invite codes here. It’s far and away the best Twitter alternative I’ve used & I really want it to be the one that succeeds.)

My naive wish is that upon seeing the blowback from creators management will realize how badly they botched their response and do a take two to make things right. At the same time it’s possible that too much damage has already been done and that it’s no longer possible to polish off that tarnish. We’ll see. I urge those in charge to do the right thing.

That’s enough airing of Festivus grievances for today. Have a great weekend, everyone.