I wanted to write a quick note for two reasons. First, I haven’t sent out a newsletter in more than a month — I’m still here.
Second, and more significant, I wanted to share some reflections on Substack as a platform in this moment as so many writers I admire have left it in recent weeks as a result of its handling of “the Nazi situation.” If you aren’t paying as much attention, I think it’s enough to say that Substack has been hosting a number of white supremacist writers, which sucks but is normal for any platform, to some extent. What’s worse was their reaction, which was basically: who cares. They are free speech absolutists, or whatever, and argue that content moderation of that kind would make the problem worse (they kind of did end up banning some anyway).
Let me start by saying that I am still looking into the options available to me, and in a general sense, I do plan to leave Substack at some point soon. However, let me tell you why it’s not as much of a priority for me.
For the writers who have left, it was clearly something of a burden to switch platforms, as it often is. Platform enclosure is a real thing, and no platform makes it particularly easy to leave. However, many of them have thousands and thousands of subscribers, often with relatively lucrative paid tiers. If you know some of that money is going directly to Substack and the dickheads running it, it makes moral sense to move elsewhere. I don’t have to do that moral calculus, since my newsletter is free.
Moreover, as Max Read wrote:
I think Substack should ban Nazis as a matter of course and am glad they eventually did so, but I am not particularly worried about the current level of Nazis on Substack; I should probably switch newsletter providers and expect I will be forced to eventually, but am cautious about doing so at Read Max’s current size and growth rate.
This is more or less how I feel. Let me be even more honest, though: Substack is free for me to use and take advantage of, whereas the main competitors that most people are moving to, namely Ghost and Beehiiv, have monthly or annual costs. For many big Substackers that monetize their newsletters, this move actually makes sense, because instead of Substack taking 10% of their money, they just pay a base fee to this other platform, which may indeed be less of a take for them.
For me, though, I don’t intend to charge for my newsletter, and I certainly didn’t imagine paying for it. If I did move to Ghost, for instance, I think I would have to start asking my readers to pay me, and I don’t want to do that, and I doubt very many would do it, anyway. It just doesn’t make sense, from my perspective, to do that.
There are free newsletter alternatives, and I’m looking into those, but in most cases their capabilities are far less than Substack’s. It’s not a surprise that all of these platforms have to either take a cut or charge fees to provide a useful service, and that the free options pale in comparison. If you have a recommendation for a free newsletter service that has most of Substack’s functionality, please send it my way.
So that’s where I currently stand on this. Obviously Substack’s leaders are assholes; obviously this platform carries a certain reputation; obviously I am open to other options that will not cost me, or you, anything.
I do think the entire situation invites us to think a bit more critically about the platform ecosystem. To state the obvious: any platform operating under capitalism is going to be imperfect and borderline evil. I’m still posting on Twitter, even though it’s a cesspool. Substack is different for many because they are making their living here, and I understand that; I’m not, though. The point is, any of these alternative platforms are almost certain to face their own internal issues, whether it’s a moderation controversy or something else entirely. Name a platform that has avoided it. You can’t.
I’m not saying that our response should be, Well, they all suck, so do whatever you want. I’m saying that, with a holistic appraisal of the platform economy, it becomes clear that none of this is sustainable. As media layoffs have gone crazy so far in 2024 (Pitchfork, LA Times, Sports Illustrated, Business Insider, on and on), it’s likely that we will continue to observe a fracturing, as more of these writers head to platforms like Substack and Ghost, and more consumers are expected to subscribe to either a chorus of individuals or to a handful of media conglomerates. All of us will be navigating this carefully, choices will be made about what to pay for and whose technology to rely on, and I anticipate that things will look much different by the end of the year. In the meantime, I will do my best to navigate it in kind.
I will, as a bare minimum, donate some money to the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, people whose job it is to fight back against the sort of hateful people we’re worried about. Hopefully this can be at least one step to offset anything this platform might make off of me, however tiny. I’ll also keep looking into other free alternatives, and keep you updated on that score.
See you out there.