You may have heard that Substack has a Nazi problem. That was the headline of a story in the Atlantic (paywalled, but there are ways around that) detailing the manner in which self-avowed fascists and white supremacists are making use of Substack – which means Substack is making use of them.
Substack is not unique in this regard. All open platforms struggle with “content moderation,” and generally fail. But some fail worse than others. It would be miserable for me and many writers if Substack turns out to be one of those – but they might. In the wake of the Atlantic story, Substack’s Hamish McKenzie issued a statement that disappointed a lot of us on the platform:
“I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either - we wish no-one held those views. But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don't think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away - in fact, it makes it worse.”
How de-platforming and de-monet…
