Is There Nowhere a Writer Can Find a Haven in This Social Media World?

I first came to Substack as a reader. Maybe it was Austin Kleon’s newsletter or Ask Polly or Jeff Tweedy who lead me here, I don’t remember. But, I am grateful for the discovery of so many wonderful writers in this space and the support they offer one another. I was excited to join them when I started a newsletter for my tiny audience. Even moving all of my blog posts to Substack and abandoning the blogging idea since it was more economical to host on Substack and there was the promise that maybe someday I could be a paid writer as well.

But, soon I started hearing problematic stories about the platform. Substack lured certain writers with hefty advances and provided those writers with editors, so Substack could make the promise to small writers that they could make money on the platform too. This might be a bit shady, but I could write it off as a business strategy. The fact they fired one of their editors for editing a post that criticized Substack was hella shady. Then Chris Best couldn’t answer a simple question about whether or not he would allow openly racist harassment on Notes. Then I started hearing that early adopters of Substack had left because of unchecked transphobia.

And why didn’t I know (because I didn’t research) that Marc Andreessen was a huge investor in the platform? (I quickly stopped using Post when I learned he was an investor there.) This morning I spent time reading the Techno-Optimist Manifesto and have to say, I’m a bit horrified by the ultra-pro capitalist belief that if we just invest in unchecked AI and technology everyone will benefit. Sounds like a recycled “trickle down theory” and we can all see how well that’s worked so far. It sounds like a recipe for the rich tech bros to get richer and everything else be damned. Reading that lead me to read about BasedBeffJezos, Guillaume Verdon, who Andreessen links to in his manifesto and calls “the patron saint of techno-optimism”, and his horrifying view of the future, for which he partly credits Nick Land. Land is an alt-right racist who believes that democracy is what stands in the way of progress, yet Verdon has explicitly embraced Land’s views. Of course Land loves Elon Musk, who is the reason I left Twitter months and months ago. The tech bros don’t seem to mind embracing alt-right racists when it serves them and their investments. Or maybe they agree with the ideology, it’s hard to tell these days.

Which segues nicely into Substack’s Nazi problem and the demand for answers 200+ Substack writers (my tiny newsletter has joined in) are calling for. As Jonathan Katz wrote extensively in his Atlantic article and in follow-up posts in his Substack newsletter, Substack not only allows Nazis to host newsletters on its platform, but also allows newsletters with blatant Nazi imagery to be monetized. When questioned about this, the founders have only put forth the free speech argument that they are an open platform for ideas. There has been no explanation for why they do deplatform some things (like sex workers) and not others (like literal Nazis). There has been no explanation as to why Hamish McKenzie chose to host a known racist, Richard Hanania on Substack’s podcast. They are not only platforming racist, transphobic, or alt-right views, they are amplifying and making money off of those newsletters.

That is what Substackers Against Nazis wants Chris Best and Hamish McKenzie to speak to. No one is pushing for anyone to be banned. No one has mentioned removing anyone from Substack. The question is why they are content moderating some things and yet allowing Nazis to make money on Substack. While I don’t believe Nazis should EVER have a platform, while I agree that the correct number of Nazis on Substack should be zero, I also know that’s impossible. But it’s not impossible to not amplify or make money off of those accounts. I am unquestionably on the side of Jonathan M. Katz, Noah Berlatsky, Marisa Kabas, and 
Sharon Hurley Hall. Keep demanding answers.

In the meantime I’m rebuilding the content on a new blog and hoping that the Nazi problem at least can be addressed. I like the other writers on Substack. I enjoy seeing them boost each other up on Notes. I already bought my copies of War and Peace and Wolf Hall to read along with Simon Haisell. I am tired of having to leave one social media platform after another because of the greedy tech bros who own them all. For me it’s about seeking a community of writers because I have no way of building that in my real, offline life. It would be nice if we could find a place and just exist without trolls, bots, and especially Nazis.

Sources and Further Reading:

“But Jezos also embraces more extreme ideas, borrowing concepts from “accelerationism,” which argues we should hasten the growth of technology and capitalism at the expense of nearly anything else.” (Forbes)

“Probably a big part of what’s with that is that moderating hate speech on social media platforms is very controversial because there’s a massive white identity movement known as the Republican party which want to mainstream racism and bigotry.” (Noah Berlatsky)

“As I made clear, starting in the lede, the problem was less that the newsletter company doesn’t enforce its written terms of service against these sites, and more that it both allows some white nationalists to monetize their content—and that Substack’s CEO Chris Best and co-founder Hamish McKenzie actively promote open racists who take advantage of that boost to funnel their audiences toward the harder stuff.” (Jonathan Katz)

“Substack isn’t a self-publishing platform, though. It curates its writers. It pays them, sometimes massively, and it makes choices as to who gets paid well and who doesn’t. We’ve seen instances of tech companies allowing hate group leaders to acquire huge followings through negligence (…) but those were cases where the platforms failed to keep bigots out. Substack is actively bringing the bigots in. Then it’s giving them paychecks.” Jude Ellison Sady Doyle

“The vast majority of Substack newsletter writers will never make money that’s equivalent to a year’s salary, which is what the staffers get. Instead, they will provide Substack with free content, hoping to get that sweet subscriber cash one day. And Substack will dangle its “successful” writers in front of its rank-and-file membership to keep them going.” (Annalee Newitz)

“What do Alex Berenson, Bari Weiss, and Glenn Greenwald have in common? They’ve all railed against being deplatformed—be it a Twitter ban or the loss of a job at a prestigious publication—only to find a new home and great riches on Substack.” (Wired)

“Obviously I went in with the full knowledge of the reputation Substack hadcultivated as a pandemic-disinformation vector and preferred platform of hot-take artists who wage culture wars and reify everything already wrong with the mainstream journalism and society they think they’re challenging.” (Spencer Ackerman)