Substack said it would remove some Nazi-supporting posts from its services after backlash over the company's initial refusal to remove accounts that support Nazi ideology, Platform References.
The company was adamant that the decision was not a reversal of its previous comments, per Platformer, but a review of how its policies are interpreted. In a statement to the tech newsletter, Substack's co-founders said that “when we become aware of other content that violates our guidelines, we will take appropriate action.” The statement continued: “We sincerely regret how this controversy has affected the writers at Substack. We appreciate everyone's input. Authors are the backbone of Substack and we take this feedback very seriously. We are actively working on more reporting tools that can be used to flag content that potentially violates our guidelines, and we will continue to work on tools for user moderation so that Substack users can define and refine the terms of their own experience in platform.”
Last month, Jonathan M. Katz published an article on The Atlantic titled “Substack has a Nazi Problem” and reported that 16 newsletters contained “obvious Nazi symbols, including the swastika and sonnenrad, in their logos or prominent graphics.” Katz estimated that Richard Spencer and his co-authors “make at least $9,000 a year and probably many times more.”
After Katz's report, more than 200 Substack authors wrote one I open a letter to the founders of Substack asking the question: “Why are you marketing and monetizing Nazis?”
In a Blog post December 21st, Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie defended the company's policy. “I just want to make it clear that we don't like Nazis either – we wish no one held those views,” McKenzie wrote. “But some people have these and other extreme views. Given this, we do not believe that censorship (including delegitimization of publications) eliminates the problem — in fact, it makes it worse.”
As Substack continued to allow pro-Nazi publications to sell subscriptions and build an online readership, several publications left the platform. Platformer, one of Substack's top newsletters, and other accounts threatened to quit the service if the company didn't openly remove Nazi posts.
“Even in a polarized world, there remains broad agreement that the slaughter of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust was an atrocity. The Nazis didn't commit the only atrocity in history, but a platform that refuses to turn away their supporters tells you something important about itself,” Platformer editor Casey Newton wrote in a Post January 4th. “If it doesn't remove Nazis, why expect the platform to remove any other harm?”
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/substack-remove-nazi-publications-backlash-1234942761/