Substack Addresses Backlash by Removing Nazi-Related Content

Substack has announced the removal of five newsletters expressing support for Nazis. While the platform maintains that there is no change in its policies, a reinterpretation has led to the decision to eliminate specific content.

Removing Newsletters Expressing Extremism

This move comes shortly after Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie defended the company's earlier stance on allowing Nazi-related content, sparking significant backlash, as reported by The Verge.

In response to a letter from over 200 Substack authors, McKenzie addressed the issue in a December post. However, the recent decision to remove "some" publications endorsing Nazis indicates a shift in approach.

Several newsletters have already migrated to alternative platforms like Ghost or Beehiiv, and reports suggest a notable departure of paying customers who are unwilling to support a platform seen as endorsing extremism.

Substack downplayed the situation, emphasizing the removal of five publications that violate existing content guidelines, particularly those prohibiting incitements to violence based on protected classes.

According to the company, these removed publications did not enable paid subscriptions and collectively had approximately 100 active readers. The question remains whether this move will be sufficient to quell the ongoing backlash.

Additional Moderation Measures

Substack asserts that while its policy remains unchanged, Platformer reported that there will be some additional moderation measures implemented as a result of reassessing its interpretation of existing policies.

The reassessment does not imply a proactive removal of Nazi-related content, which the company claims constitutes a small fraction of the platform's numerous newsletters. Substack's co-founders state in a released statement that if they become aware of other content that violates our guidelines, they will take appropriate action.

Substack's hands-off moderation approach has garnered support, as highlighted in another open letter from Substack writer Elle Griffin, co-signed by over a hundred other Substack authors.

This letter endorses the company's current "decentralized" moderation approach, which excludes content deemed as spam or created by sex workers but permits Nazi-related content. Substack seeks further details on the potential removal of publications, the reasons behind such actions, and additional information regarding the recently reinterpreted policy.

Established in 2017, Substack has outlined terms of service that explicitly prohibit hate, along with pornography, spam, and individuals or entities restricted from making money on Substack, a classification encompassing businesses barred by Stripe.

Despite these guidelines, Substack's leadership proudly rejects the content-moderation approaches employed by other platforms, even though they often yield inconsistent results in curtailing the dissemination of racist or bigoted content.

The Atlantic reported that an informal exploration of both the Substack website and extremist Telegram channels that share Substack posts reveals numerous white-supremacist, neo-Confederate, and explicitly Nazi newsletters.

While it's crucial to acknowledge that these newsletters represent only a fraction of the overall content on the site, which boasted over 17,000 paid writers as of March with numerous others providing their work for free, dismissing white-nationalist newsletters on Substack as inconsequential or harmless would be a misjudgment.