Elon Musk claims Substack links “were never blocked” and Substack tried to “download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone”

Forbes 2023-04-10 Matt Novak

Context & Ripple Effects

The dispute unfolded alongside Twitter’s decision to attach a safety/spam warning to Substack URLs, a move documented in Twitter’s warning treatment of Substack links. Musk’s denial and database allegation offer Twitter’s explanation for a policy change that Substack and users had already experienced.

Substack’s founders cast the abrupt change as evidence that writers need a platform independent of a major distribution gatekeeper in their public response to Twitter. The episode matters because Twitter and Substack overlap both as traffic channels and as venues for audience-building conversation.

First-order effects

Twitter and Substack face competing public accounts of the links’ treatment: Musk denies a block while alleging unauthorized database-scale downloading; Substack must defend its conduct and its position with writers.
Writers and publishers using Substack lose clarity about how reliably their links will circulate on Twitter when warning labels and platform statements conflict.

Second-order effects

Substack has a stronger incentive to reduce reliance on Twitter for discovery and discussion, while Twitter has reason to police behavior it characterizes as competitive data extraction more visibly.
Other publishing and social platforms can use the dispute to pitch themselves as more dependable distribution partners for creators concerned about unilateral link controls.

Third-order effects

If large social platforms increasingly treat outbound links to adjacent products as a competitive-risk issue, creator businesses will place greater value on owning subscriber relationships rather than depending on referral traffic.
The episode points to a broader governance problem: platform operators can influence competitors’ reach through moderation and safety systems, while the basis for those interventions may be contested.

The trend: This is one data point in the growing tension between social networks’ control of distribution and creator platforms’ push to own direct audience relationships.

Discussion

@caseynewton@mastodon.social Casey Newton on mastodon
Downloading a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap my Twitter clone
@cspam@mastodon.cloud @cspam@mastodon.cloud on mastodon
lmao searching for “from:mtaibbi” now returns no results — watch their already radium-ass codebase end up with load-bearing bans like SA
@campuscodi@mastodon.social Catalin Cimpanu on mastodon
@Techmeme — So... they had a massive data breach? Is this what he's saying? Cause databases aren't free to access like that :))) — God... this guy is so clueless... which helps because you can see through his b.s. so easily
@elonmusk Elon Musk on x
@BretWeinstein 1. Substack links were never blocked. Matt's statement is false. 2. Substack was trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone, so their IP address is obviously untrusted. 3. Turns out Matt is/was an employee of Subst…
@paulg Paul Graham on x
Elon has asked me to “please tell people on Twitter that you are an investor in the company trying to kill Twitter,” so for anyone who didn't already know, Substack is a YC company.
@benjysarlin Benjy Sarlin on x
This is easily the most straightforward read of what he's doing, but even taken on its own terms (which lol), he's antagonized many of the users currently producing original reported content. https://www.wsj.com/...
@mattzeitlin Matthew Zeitlin on x
really good piece about how musk sees twitter: he thinks (or claims to think) that people should be able to get everything they want information-wise on here from twitter native sources, not follow links to news orgs https://www.wsj.com/...
@modeledbehavior Adam Ozimek on x
This is like Spotify trying to replace the record labels. Fundamental misunderstanding of the core value of the platform, and because he is a low information news consumer, he doesn't understand the core value of the media either https://www.wsj.com/...
@chrismessina Chris Messina on x
Imagine Elon pissing away the entire YC community, starting with any YC-backed companies that he perceives compete with him (OpenAI inclusive)? https://twitter.com/...
@edzitron Ed Zitron on x
Elon truly has created his own personal hell: a website that burdens him with billions of dollars of debt and embarrasses him repeatedly https://twitter.com/...
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
The love of free speech leaving Elon Musk's body every time another website or app does something he doesn't like. https://twitter.com/...
@benedictevans Benedict Evans on x
@paulg It's very revealing that he thinks of it that way around. People are running for the exits because he's trying to bolt them. Every time he does something to destroy trust, people build backup plans, and trying to ban the backup plans is what destroys the trust. Vicious cir…
@michaeldweiss Michael Weiss on x
We've reached the Zinoviev-Kamenev Trial stage of this revolution and it is hilarious. https://www.emptywheel.net/...
@bfriedmandc Brandon Friedman on x
Welp, that's the end of Community Notes https://twitter.com/...
@daniellemorrill Elle Morrill on x
If Substack is what finally kills Twitter after all the other bullshit I will eat my hat
@ericnewcomer Eric Newcomer on x
Surprised Substack's largest outside shareholder (a16z) hasn't publicly come to their defense
@mikeisaac @mikeisaac on x
this is interesting — not exactly clear what musk means by Twtr database but it would be interesting if Substack was trying to recreate the follow graph somehow to kickstart their twitter clone (i think Facebook regularly used to cut off small startups that attempted similar)
@sofain So Fain on x
So now Elon is throwing shade at the guy he got to shill his “Twitter files” flop? I fucking love what an absolute shitshow this place has become. https://twitter.com/...
@noahcarl90 Noah Carl on x
The founder of Substack's response: https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@redsteeze Stephen L. Miller on x
“Substack links were never blocked” lol JFC this guy.
@drkarlynb @drkarlynb on x
Bro, you punished every substack writer by making it impossible for our links to be shared, liked or replied to. If you can't compete with them, that's your problem, not ours. You literally have an API. And @mtaibbi makes all his money from substack, what did you expect???
@jbenton Joshua Benton on x
1. Blocked from being retweeted, liked, or replied to. 2. Whether or not Substack was doing that, it has absolutely zero to do with whether users can retweet, like, or reply to tweets linking to Substack pieces. 3. Who cares?
@markyzaguirre Mark R. Yzaguirre on x
I guess item 3 is a confirmation that the Elon Musk / Matt Taibbi bromance is history.
@craigcalcaterra Craig Calcaterra on x
Musk is so knowingly full of shit here it's not even funny. He obviously throttled and blocked Substack links and a person who writes a Substack newsletter is no more an employee of Substack than someone who tweets is an employee of Twitter. https://twitter.com/...
@alexandrosm @alexandrosm on x
For what it's worth this is elons side of the story which might be technically correct, but that's the worst kind of correct. It's not correct in essence. https://twitter.com/...
@mikeelgan Mike Elgan on x
Substack's reply: https://twitter.com/...
@charlesarthur Charles Arthur on x
Impressive: two completely wrong assertions (1 and 3, confirmed 1 myself) and one of very doubtful veracity. Surprised we haven't been promised a self-driving Twitter yet; it would be as likely. https://twitter.com/...
@jamesrbuk James Ball on x
Substack is the wrong enemy for Elon: shared investors, shared influencers, and more. Even his beloved Community Notes aren't on his side here. https://twitter.com/...
@damonimani Damon Imani on x
I still can't believe users can fact check the owner of a platform on his own platform. This is a W for @elonmusk and tweeters. https://twitter.com/...
@ruskin147 Rory Cellan-Jones on x
This is such BS from @elonmusk - marking Substack links as unsafe is as good as blocking them #StandDownElon https://twitter.com/...
@senronjohnson Senator Ron Johnson on x
.@elonmusk, you say Twitter isn't blocking Substacks. Ok, so I'll ask again: Why did Twitter block my tweet about the death of a 14 yr-old in Japan following a Covid-19 booster? Twitter labeled the Truth “unsafe.” Why? https://twitter.com/...
@konstantinkisin Konstantin Kisin on x
It's blocking them RIGHT NOW and preventing likes and retweets on tweets with such links in them. I really hope this is some kind of technical error and not a policy decision... https://twitter.com/...
@hansmahncke Hans Mahncke on x
A lot of acrimony could've been avoided if Twitter had just issued a statement: “We've restricted Substack because they were downloading a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone.” Remember that old Twitter was hated due to lack of transparency. h…
@matthewstoller Matt Stoller on x
This is likely a false and deceptive statement, and that's unlawful. Twitter not only blocked Substack links, but also refuses to let tweets to be embedded in Substack posts. Twitter is already under an FTC consent decree and I suspect Musk is going to be in real trouble. https:/…

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