On Substack's Nazi problem

I'm staying put, for now...

In a very disappointing move, the leaders of Substack have announced that their solution to their “Nazi problem” is to keep having a Nazi problem. That is, they’ve been warned that there are white supremacists using this platform and making money off it, and their solution is to simply say that free speech is important, that they’d rather just be neutral on the range of political beliefs on this platform, and that, despite all evidence to the contrary, deplatforming white supremacists makes the problem worse. Ken White’s post is very good on this:

Substack Has A Nazi Opportunity

Here’s the problem -- you cannot be neutral on this. Either you’re permitting Nazis to use your platform or you’re not. Neither of those is a neutral act.

And perhaps more importantly and more conceptually, there is no way to permit some people to use your platform without it affecting others. When you tell your users that this is a space where Nazis can hone and spread their ideology and make money off it, you tell others that this is not a platform they should feel comfortable using. Extending a platform to Nazis is not a costless exercise; it drives others away. In particular, it drives away those typically targeted by modern Nazis — Jews, women, people of color, gays and lesbians, trans people, and more. If you’re choosing to have more of one you’re going to get less of the other, and people will notice.

I’m still weighing my own options here. I left Twitter this year for similar reasons, but my analysis of the situation was different. I had a fairly large following there and I thought my departure would mean... something. Unfortunately, that platform is now owned by a white nationalist, so the departure of people like me was not likely to change many minds.

Here on Substack, I’m perhaps naive enough to think that

Hamish McKenzie

and others in management are not white nationalists or even remotely sympathetic to them, but just have rather simplistic views of “free speech” common among the tech-set. They’re under the false and foolish impression that free speech and the First Amendment require private organizations to platform those with odious and hateful views. I tend to think smart people of good will threatening to depart this site could have an influence; I do not, however, have a platform yet big enough to make much of a difference.

Needless to say, not everyone gets a platform, and Substack is not obligated to provide one for everyone. It is one thing for government to ban a group for unpopular speech; it is quite another for a company to provide a platform to such a group. “Free speech” mitigates against the first; it does not require the second.

All this is to say that Tusk is still here for now, and I’ll keep trying to build this platform up and I hope you’ll continue to follow. But I am also seeking to make my views known to the management here and to remind them that the patience of me and others like me who are not eager to work on a Nazi-tolerant platform is not endless.