Discussion

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on threads

  I remember some very self-righteous people sending a great deal of abuse my way when I argued that the ad model is not the cause of toxic content and behaviour online.  I think most of them went to Mastodon, home of very self-righteous people and CSAM trading networks.

• @renee.diresta Renee DiResta on threads

  On the monetization question: when a platform turns a profit from proponents of a particular ideology, whether by accepting ads or participating in a rev sharing arrangement, it is making a statement about its values. …

• @brian.fishman.5 Brian Fishman on threads

  Thread incoming.  Folks are talking about Substack's payments to Nazis, largely in response to The Verge article below.  It's a good piece, but I think it misses an important element re Substack's rationale, namely that its founders believe that “the original sin of the Internet …

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on threads

  How bad can the business be doing that they can't spare the Nazi money?  That they even took demonetization off the table is bonkers.

• @goldengateblond Shauna Wright on threads

  oh for god's sake.  this is such bullshit.  when I worked at Twitter I used to say this so I'll repeat it here: people absolutely have the right to think and say whatever they want — but companies are under no obligation to provide a stage and a microphone to help them amplify it…

• @aaronrosspowell Aaron Ross Powell on threads

  This is an important point.  We have reason to believe Substack's financials aren't in great shape, and they haven't gotten much traction from their recent feature editions (Substack Notes is clearly a failure).  Substacks with lots of paid members have an incentive to leave beca…

• @ricmac Richard MacManus on threads

  So, Substack... I was really disappointed and annoyed by the company's response to the racist, hateful content on the site.  As an author on the platform, I now have some thinking to do.  But please can folks not put pressure on indie writers to immediately quit …

• @brian.fishman.5 Brian Fishman on threads

  So, by all means, criticize the feckless and morally bereft position taken by Substack.  Criticize ad-based business models.  But be careful that when you criticize certain elements of tech platforms you don't give license to naive or bad faith actors running equally risky platfo…

• @brian.fishman.5 Brian Fishman on threads

  Substack's founders have abused the criticism of ad-based business models to insulate themselves from responsibility for platforming, and profiting from, nazis.  But they didn't invent the theory that digital harm is a function of business models.  The lesson is NOT that the func…

• @anildash Anil Dash on threads

  Why won't Substack give a huge monetary advance to folks who think their executive team should be systematically eliminated?  Censorship.

• @richardlawler Richard Lawler on threads

  idk man, maybe people are being too hard on @hamishmckenzie over saying that demonetizing nazis makes “the problem” worse.  I'm sure he has proof to support this statement, it just goes to another school in Canada that you haven't heard of and its webcam is broken so it can't vid…

• @hankgreen Hank Green on threads

  Max Fisher's Chaos Machine is making this all make more sense to me...

• @wfnycraig Craig Lyndall on threads

  I consider myself close to a free speech absolutist, but I have no issues drawing the lines at Nazis and Alex Jones - for example - because both cause real-world harm with their speech.  I don't know why this is so hard.  I wonder if / when @crumbler will move his site...

• @quillmatiq Anuj Ahooja on threads

  I don't want to unsubscribe from Substacks since that means taking money away from independent journalists like @crumbler and @reporterzoe.  But I do hope they reconsider where they do their business. @wordpressdotcom and Ghost both provide paid subscription options. …

• @foglandia Debbie Lefkowitz on threads

  All that wordsalad can be summarized as “Nazis are okay because they help us make money.”  Shameful.

• @jkottke Jason Kottke on threads

  Substack explains why they are paying Nazis to publish on their platform.  Friends who publish on Substack, are you ok with this?  If not, maybe try Buttondown or Wordpress or Ghost or literally anything fucking else. https://substack.com/...

• @grantmcconnaughey Grant McConnaughey on threads

  I bailed on Substack Notes based entirely on your interview with them earlier this year.  Like I was super excited about it, listened to your interview, closed my account.  Just all-time terrible interview answers; it was immediately apparent where that site would end up (Gab for…

• @reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads

  Incredible that Substack is openly and actively choosing “Nazis” as its brand

• @xanderoconnor Xander O'Connor on threads

  Seems like a great opportunity for @meta and @zuck to do what they did to Twitter and offer an extremely similar product to substack just with less active support of Nazis!  I think the you *can* fruitfully reinvent the wheel if you change the spokes to not exactly resemble a swa…

• @parismarx@mastodon.online Paris Marx on mastodon

  Substack's response to the open letter isn't a surprise, but it does confirm they absolutely will not abandon the right-wing framing of free speech they've adopted which not only accepts hate speech, but actively defends racism, transphobia, and other forms of bigotry. …

• @buermann@mastodon.social Josh Buermann on mastodon

  Platforming Nazis, financing them, and lending them your credibility by sharing a platform with them empowers Nazis, and the management of #Substack have made it clear that they're going to continue doing so.  —  https://www.theverge.com/...

• @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social Jeff Jarvis on mastodon

  His opener: “I just want to make it clear that we don't like Nazis.”  What abrogation of editorial responsibility.  Substack's not the whole net.  It's a platform where its proprietors choose what to carry.  They choose to carry Nazis.  Not carrying Nazis is not censorship.  —  h…

• @epro.social Emil Protalinski on bluesky

  It always comes down to money.  If the Nazi content was not helpful to Substack's bottom line, Substack would suddenly find the moral high ground.  —  This won't change until:  —  platforming and monetizing Nazis stops being lucrative  —  OR  —  Substack becomes incredibly profit…

• @drskyskull.bsky.social Dr. SkySkull on bluesky

  Substack managers today: [image]

• @sethcotlar.bsky.social Seth Cotlar on bluesky

  Back in the 1960s and 70s there were a handful of stores where you could buy pro-Nazi literature in America, like the newsstand of Joseph Dilys in Chicago.  The people who sold such literature did so BECAUSE THEY WERE NAZIS.  Again, if you sell content, there is no rule saying yo…

• @sethcotlar.bsky.social Seth Cotlar on bluesky

  My thoughts on the “we don't like Nazis even though we give them a powerful platform to promote their genocidal ideas while we profit off of them” response from the historical and political illiterates who own Substack.  [image]

• @adamserwer.bsky.social Adam Serwer on bluesky

  “Censorship” is a cowardly way of saying they have made an editorial choice to give nazis a platform in the same way a newspaper chooses its opinion columnists.  And the logical conclusion is that contrary to this statement they feel those views are worth hosting bsky.app/profile…

• @melissagiragrant.com Melissa Gira Grant on bluesky

  Love the part where he correctly points out censorship tends to fall on the historically powerless which rather neatly explains why they've decided Substack is a platform welcoming to Nazis but not to sex workers [embedded post]

• @marisakabas.bsky.social Marisa Kabas on bluesky

  NEW: Substack founders finally respond to Substackers Against Nazis.  They say Nazis publishing and earning money on their platform is fine with them.  —  Their full statement here: substack.com/@hamish/note...  [image]

• @david_moscrop David Moscrop on x

  This stance from Substack is *hugely* disappointing and, at best, deeply misguided. I'm looking at alternatives and hoping, in the meantime, to see a change from Substack and posts from Nazi scum relegated to the bin. https://www.theverge.com/...

• @rjcc Richard Lawler on x

  You gotta hear both sides, and sometimes one of those sides is “Nazis pay for email newsletters too” as Michael Jordan could've said but didn't