Boycotting Substack

I’ll keep this brief: today, The Atlantic published the article “Substack Has a Nazi Problem” which outlines how this platform both provides a platform for far-right propaganda and profits off said content.

“Substack is a platform that is built on freedom of expression, and helping writers publish what they want to write,” [Substack co-founder, Hamish McKenzie] and the company’s other co-founders, Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi, said in a statement when asked for comment on this article. “Some of that writing is going to be objectionable or offensive. Substack has a content moderation policy that protects against extremes—like incitements to violence—but we do not subjectively censor writers outside of those policies.” Still, some decisions seem obvious: If something that bills itself as “a National Socialist website” doesn’t violate Substack’s own policy against “hate,” what does?

To that end, this platform deserves neither my attention nor my effort, and so I shall be boycotting it until further notice.

To be clear: I’m nobody, here. There’s a few dozen of you fine subscribers; I make no money from this newsletter, nor do I derive a living from my limited, sporadic effort here. I lose little by moving my publication elsewhere and I am insignificant enough that this feeble act of protest will barely emit a breeze in a storm. But it’s what I can do.