Substack faced further criticism in November 2023 for allowing its platform to be used by white nationalists, Nazis, and antisemites.[61] In an open letter, more than 100 Substack creators threatened to leave the platform[62] and implored Substack's leadership to stop giving bigotry a platform.[63] In response, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie said the company would continue to allow the publication of extremist views because attempting to censor them would make the problem worse.[11][64]
The CEO did an interview on The Verge with Nilay Patel and refused to say that he would take Nazi content off the platform, taking an 'absolute free-speech, nothing is censored' approach.
The common sentiment is that refusing to take down Nazi content makes one complicit and supportive of Nazis.
But I have no idea how many nazis post on Substack.
The common sentiment is that refusing to take down Nazi content makes one complicit and supportive of Nazis.
No tolerance for intolerance is a principle which he seems to be whiffing on. Or maybe it's as simple as significantly more profit for him by turning a blind eye.
Suppose I've heard a lot of talk trashing Substack, but what alternatives exist?
As a non-user who doesn't do much of anything in that space, seems like they're one of the few ways to distribute newsletters and such to emails en masse.
The newsletter-hosting site Substack advertises itself as the last, best hope for civility on the internet—and aspires to a bigger role in politics in 2024. But just beneath the surface, the platform has become a home and propagator of white supremacy and anti-Semitism. Substack has not only been hosting writers who post overtly Nazi rhetoric on the platform; it profits from many of them.
The CEO did an interview on The Verge with Nilay Patel and refused to say that he would take Nazi content off the platform, taking an 'absolute free-speech, nothing is censored' approach.
The common sentiment is that refusing to take down Nazi content makes one complicit and supportive of Nazis.
19 replies
I haven't used substack, but I've never heard any negative discourse about it either. A lot of Nazis on there I guess?
From their Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substack
2026 Guardian Article on this
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
In addition to what others have posted, there was also the time they "accidentally" sent a push notification promoting an actual Nazi blog, swastika amf everything.
I don't know much about Substack, but there are some killer blogs there. For example Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's.
https://kareem.substack.com/
I'm curious too, is this about the owners or the writers?
The CEO did an interview on The Verge with Nilay Patel and refused to say that he would take Nazi content off the platform, taking an 'absolute free-speech, nothing is censored' approach.
The common sentiment is that refusing to take down Nazi content makes one complicit and supportive of Nazis.
But I have no idea how many nazis post on Substack.
No tolerance for intolerance is a principle which he seems to be whiffing on. Or maybe it's as simple as significantly more profit for him by turning a blind eye.
https://leavesubstack.com/
Do you mean x.com? Because someone registered the expired Twitter name and is building Twitter.now as a replacement for What the old Twitter became.
Yeah but it's just another corpo take. They basically came right out and said we got investors, we got a business plan, we wanna make some money.
Suppose I've heard a lot of talk trashing Substack, but what alternatives exist?
As a non-user who doesn't do much of anything in that space, seems like they're one of the few ways to distribute newsletters and such to emails en masse.
Other options include Ghost, Beehiv, Wordpress, Blogger, self-publishing, on and on. Nobody's forced to hang out with Nazis; it's a choice.
I've just heard of Substack, what's wrong with it?
Substack has a Nazi problem
The CEO did an interview on The Verge with Nilay Patel and refused to say that he would take Nazi content off the platform, taking an 'absolute free-speech, nothing is censored' approach.
The common sentiment is that refusing to take down Nazi content makes one complicit and supportive of Nazis.
Nothing as far as I know. It has some of the most thoughtful news / opinion channels I've read. But OP seems to hate it per their bio.
The image shows it
Oh, majority are Nazis..