Mastodawn

0px auto 3d ago

You know, I sometimes feel like I'm being kind of a bitch by refusing to subscribe to Substack newsletters, refusing to share Substack links. But this is why. Substack is a right-wing social media platform that uses its token left-wing writers and apolitical newsletters as cover. I don't want any part of that.
https://mastodon.social/@taylorlorenz/114939115888742842

"But perhaps even more appealing than Substack's lack of content moderation, Fisher-Birch noted that [extremist] groups see Substack as ‘a legitimizing tool for sharing content’ specifically because the Substack brand—which is widely used by independent journalists, top influencers, cherished content creators, and niche experts—can help them ‘convey the image of a thought leader.’”

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/07/substacks-nazi-problem-wont-go-away-after-push-notification-apology/

Substack’s “Nazi problem” won’t go away after push notification apology

Substack may be legitimizing neo-Nazis as “thought leaders,” researcher warns.

Ars Technica

Substack kind of wants to have it both ways, of being a "neutral" host of content while also operating a content *recommendation* system. People aren't just overreacting when that content recommendation system recommends explicit neo-nazis! Those extremist users are depending on Substack promoting their content for them; they're not just a neutral pipe at this point.

RalfMaximus 3d ago

At this point are they neo-Nazis or just Nazis?

john fink ok!! :goat:3d ago

@misty hey like Twitter huh

@adr Yep! And just like Twitter the recommendation system is a big part of it

Steve Otter 3d ago

@misty I can’t understand why people like Heather Cox Richardson and Paul Krugman use it.

aburka 🫣3d ago

@misty I know this makes me sound like the "and yet you participate in society" guy but I don't see how she can publish this reporting with a straight face on the very platform where you need to pay Nazis to read it

@aburka Right? I completely agree with you. There are alternatives and people have had time to prepare for switching to them.

aburka 🫣3d ago

@misty and like, it's a paywalled post, that's also a choice

@misty it's like a less successful version of the nyt i guess

Hubert Figuière 3d ago

@misty I don't feel like that. I call it resistance. Substack is a nazi bar. Any refusal to participate is necessary.

Hubert Figuière 3d ago

@misty to be noted the irony of that post is that it links to a substack.... which is why I never boosted it in the first place.

@hub Yeah, I'm breaking my rule just this once since it's genuinely germane.

tungsten cube gf 3d ago

@misty the NYT model

libramoon 3d ago

I've been interacting happily on Substack for well over a year; yet to even see a bit of a right-wing post
It's not the platform; it's the people we choose to meet there
There is a vast amount of quite wonderful material distributed through Substack, which gets missed due to this kind of prejudice

James Britt 3d ago

@libramoon @misty

The moderate people drinking at the Nazi bar help legitimatize the Nazis there.

libramoon 2d ago

@jamesbritt @misty

how about we have spaces where everyone can have their say, and we each choose who we listen to or interact with or put down?

James Britt 2d ago

@libramoon @misty

The irony is deafening.

@libramoon If you check the articles I linked, you can see that Substack has a recommendation system which is known for recommending far-right, extremist writers. Likewise, they have an editorial team - they pick writers to bring onboard, they pay those people big money to join. (It's not just a self-serve, self-publish platform.) And their institutional bias has been to the right.

@libramoon You talk about spaces where everyone can have their say, but Substack isn't a neutral content pipe. It's company with a point of view; people can choose whether they like that point of view or not.

libramoon 2d ago

@misty @jamesbritt

every human has a point of view
I have my experiences, on which I base mine
I've been through many social networks where both right and left extremes were loudly represented
I have yet to have right wing views pushed on me, or otherwise evidenced in my interactions on substack
how about, if you don't want to ignore the Nazi presence, you use it to ridicule them?

libramoon 2d ago

you do know, we are all at the bar, all the time, no matter our political persuasions

James Britt 2d ago

LOL, no.

That's not what's going here at all.

libramoon 2d ago

happy for your amusement

lioness × securely held 3d ago

@misty thank you, we've been doing the same for years (since it's inception) and it's good to remember we had reasons

Jeff McNeill 3d ago

@misty exactly

James Britt 3d ago

To avoid actually visiting substack

https://archive.ph/lQzS5

Claus Cramon Houmann 3d ago

@misty same! +1

Orca 🌻 | 🎀 | 🪁 | 🏴🏳️‍⚧️3d ago

@misty The bigger problem IMO is, Substack's non-apology reads (emphasis mine) "We discovered an error that caused some people to receive push notifications they should never have received. In some cases, these notifications were extremely offensive or disturbing. This was a serious error, and we apologize for the distress it caused. We have taken the relevant system offline, diagnosed the issue, and are making changes to ensure it doesn’t happen again."

What are these push notifications (that recommend Nazi newspapers) intended for, then? So Substack is fine with recommending Nazi newspapers, it onlt becomes a problem because this Nazi newspaper is recommended to non-Nazi users?

Fritz Adalis 2d ago

@misty @david_chisnall
Am I the only one who sees the irony of her User Voice article being on Substack? Everyone's going to the Nazi bar to complain about the Nazi bar, and they're happily serving drinks.

@FritzAdalis No, I'm completely with you.