Pressure builds on newsletter company Substack to stop revenue sharing with Nazi writers
Substack has faced criticism over the last several weeks after a report revealed the platform was hosting Nazi content.
One of the internet’s top platforms for independent writing is facing a growing backlash from some writers over its announcement last month that it won’t block Nazis from its services, a decision that allows them and other extremists to sell subscriptions and build an online audience.
Substack, founded in 2017 in San Francisco, has become a hub for journalism and other online writing by streamlining the process for publishing email newsletters and allowing writers to keep 90% of any sales, with the company taking a 10% cut.
But in a test of that model, a handful of writers who have used Substack to build email newsletter businesses have quit the platform in recent weeks, and more writers have said they’re considering doing so if Substack doesn’t reverse its policies and demonetize white supremacists — a step that the company argues would be tantamount to censorship.
One of Substack’s top newsletters, Platformer, which publishes tech industry news, told its more than 172,000 subscribers this week that it was considering leaving the platform.
“The Nazis did not commit the only atrocity in history, but a platform that declines to remove their supporters is telling you something important about itself,” Platformer’s editor, Casey Newton, wrote Thursday.
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