Substackers Against Nazis

A collective letter to Substack leadership

Dec 14, 2023

UPDATE (January 9, 2024): Substack has announced that they will remove some Nazi accounts that advocate violence since that is a direct violation of Substack's Terms of Service. The details can be found here. You can read below for background information on what led to this recent decision.

UPDATE (December 21, 2023): Two of the Substack founders have responded and the short answer is that they have no problems with Nazis earning a profit from their platform. Here are their Notes statements in full:

This response to the Substack founders’ Notes raises a good point:

If Chris and Hamish do think that free speech is so important, maybe they could explain why they don’t allow adult content creators?

Exactly! If they are okay with Nazis having Substack accounts and making money from their platform, why aren't they okay with adult content creators doing the same? At least adult content creators don't say stuff like “Jews will never replace us” or burn crosses on the front lawns of African American homeowners or openly call for the genocide of certain groups of people.

You can read the original letter below.

Note: I didn’t write this letter but it definitely articulates my concerns about Substack as a platform. If you have your own Substack, feel free to copy and paste this letter. The purpose of posting this letter on our individual Substacks is to increase visibility and to make our readers be aware of our concerns about this platform. Today I won’t be providing a Comments section for paid subscribers or anyone else on this post.

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

Below is the list of those who worked on drafting this letter along with their Substack accounts.

Marisa, The Handbasket

Jonathan, The Racket

René, Good Internet

Sharon, Sharon’s Anti-Racism Newsletter

Daniel, Drezner’s World

Frankie, Putong Words, Etc.

Dave, The Future, Now and Then

Sam, Apperceptive

Chandra, A Civil Rights Power Couple