Hi everyone—I know it’s been a LONG time since you last heard from me. Lot of reasons for that, but the good news is I do have something I want to write about, stemming from a book I recently read and loved, and I mean to get that to you by the end of the year. Before that, however, this is an open letter to the Substack founders that I helped draft as part of a group of publishers seeking answers to questions about the platforming and monetizing of Nazis. We are all publishing the letter on our own individual Substacks today for visibility, and to make our readers aware of our asks and concerns. Thanks for reading.
Dear Chris, Hamish & Jairaj:
We’re asking a very simple question that has somehow been made complicated: Why are you platforming and monetizing Nazis?
According to a piece written by Substack publisher Jonathan M. Katz and published by The Atlantic on November 28, this platform has a Nazi problem:
“Some Substack newsletters by Nazis and white nationalists have thousands or tens of thousands of subscribers, making the platform a new and valuable tool for creating mailing lists for the far right. And many accept paid subscriptions through Substack, seemingly flouting terms of service that ban attempts to ‘publish content or fund initiatives that incite violence based on protected classes’...Substack, which takes a 10 percent cut of subscription revenue, makes money when readers pay for Nazi newsletters.”
As Patrick Casey, a leader of a now-defunct neo-Nazi group who is banned on nearly every other social platform except Substack, wrote on here in 2021: “I’m able to live comfortably doing something I find enjoyable and fulfilling. The cause isn’t going anywhere.” Several Nazis and white supremacists including Richard Spencer not only have paid subscriptions turned on but have received Substack “Bestseller” badges, indicating that they are making at a minimum thousands of dollars a year.
From our perspective as Substack publishers, it is unfathomable that someone with a swastika avatar, who writes about “The Jewish question,” or who promotes Great Replacement Theory, could be given the tools to succeed on your platform. And yet you’ve been unable to adequately explain your position.
In the past you have defended your decision to platform bigotry by saying you “make decisions based on principles not PR” and “will stick to our hands-off approach to content moderation.” But there’s a difference between a hands-off approach and putting your thumb on the scale. We know you moderate some content, including spam sites and newsletters written by sex workers. Why do you choose to promote and allow the monetization of sites that traffic in white nationalism?
Your unwillingness to play by your own rules on this issue has already led to the announced departures of several prominent Substackers, including Rusty Foster and Helena Fitzgerald. They follow previous exoduses of writers, including Substack Pro recipient Grace Lavery and Jude Ellison S. Doyle, who left with similar concerns.
As journalist Casey Newton told his more than 166,000 Substack subscribers after Katz’s piece came out: “The correct number of newsletters using Nazi symbols that you host and profit from on your platform is zero.”
We, your publishers, want to hear from you on the official Substack newsletter. Is platforming Nazis part of your vision of success? Let us know—from there we can each decide if this is still where we want to be.
Signed,
Substackers Against Nazis
If this letter resonates with you, please share this post with others. If you’re a Substack publisher who would like to join this collective effort, I encourage you to repost the letter to your readers—and let me or Marisa Kabas, who’s really spearheaded this campaign, know that you’ve done so, so you can be added to the list of signatories.
I’ve been concerned about this issue for the last two years, ever since, as the letter references, Jude Ellison S. Doyle brought attention to the ways Substack was supporting and recruiting not just illiberal writers, but outright transphobes. My response then was to suspend the paid newsletter program I was running—if Substack was going to use its money to prop up hateful voices, I would simply no longer put myself in the position of having to give Substack any portion of my newsletter earnings. I continue to use the newsletter tools for three reasons: They’re good tools, they’re free, and there’s no guarantee that if I left Substack for another platform, that platform wouldn’t end up chasing after (among others) Nazi, white supremacist, Christian nationalist, or transphobe dollars somewhere down the line, too. So I plant my stakes here, and I call the owners out as I can, and not just in moments like this. That’s the choice that worked for me. Other people have walked away completely, and that’s a solid choice as well.
Anyway! A happier letter soon, I promise.