Substackers Against Nazis

This is not just about free speech

I’m sending an extra newsletter this week because of the Substackers Against Nazis effort. Read on to learn about how Substack is platforming Nazis.

In the late 1970s, my high school social studies class had an intense discussion about whether Nazis should be allowed to hold a demonstration in Skokie, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago 150 miles from us. Skokie was nearly half Jewish, and many of those Jews were Holocaust survivors. I don’t recall whether we came to any agreement in my class, though I doubt it. The case was so controversial and such a test of free speech that the ACLU got involved, with a Jewish lawyer defending the Nazis’ right to march.

In the end, the opposition gave the Nazis far more attention than they would have gotten had they been allowed to hold their planned 30-minute demonstration. Still, some Holocaust survivors actually thanked the lawyer, saying that “they wanted to be able to see their enemies in plain sight so they would know who they were.”

Free speech is not a simple thing. When does it become dangerous and need to be held in check? I don’t have the answer. But I will say that Substack is not a public square. Substack is a company, one with written guidelines on what content is not allowed, which includes a “hate” category. However, the platform is not only tolerating but also actively promoting and profiting from white-supremacist authors.

I highly value this platform, which has given me a way to express myself and to write weekly to all of you, something that’s important to me. I mostly have positive feelings about Substack. If it weren’t for other Substackers whom I trust, I wouldn’t be aware that it’s being used as a platform for Nazis.

To give an idea of what’s happening on Substack, here’s an excerpt from an Atlantic article about the problem:

“The platform has shown a surprising tolerance for extremists who circumvent its published rules. Patrick Casey, a leader of Identity Evropa, a defunct neo-Nazi group, had been banned from Twitter and TikTok and suspended from YouTube after running afoul of those platforms’ terms of service. (Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, subsequently announced an ‘amnesty’ that restored Casey’s account, among others.) Perhaps most damagingly to a content creator, Stripe had prohibited Casey from using its services.

But Substack was willing to let a white supremacist get back on his feet. Casey launched a free Substack newsletter soon after the 2020 election. Months later, he set up a paywall, getting around Stripe’s ban by involving a third-party payment processor.”

Read more here and in the letter below. The letter was written by a group of publishers seeking answers to questions about the platforming and monetizing of Nazis.

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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

Thanks for reading. If this letter resonates, please share this post with others. If you’re a publisher who would like to join this collective effort, we encourage you to repost the letter on your own Substack.