More than 200 Substack authors asked the platform to explain why it’s “platforming and monetizing Nazis,” and now they have an answer straight from co-founder Hamish McKenzie:
I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don’t think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse.
While McKenzie offers no evidence to back these ideas, this tracks with the company’s previous stance on taking a hands-off approach to moderation. In April, Substack CEO Chris Best appeared on the Decoder podcast and refused to answer moderation questions. “We’re not going to get into specific ‘would you or won’t you’ content moderation questions” over the issue of overt racism being published on the platform, Best said. McKenzie followed up later with a similar statement to the one today, saying “we don’t like or condone bigotry in any form.”
That’s why having a bill of rights is such a dangerous thing.
Other countries have laws that allow for people to speak freely, but having “free speech” enshrined as a right, means you allow companies like this to promote hate speech but dust their hands off and claim, “We’re just following the constitution” so they can profit from open racism and look clean while doing it.
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Really? Quote the lines where I said that, Straw Man. You should work at a movie theatre; you’re a world class projector.
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And yet you still don’t understand it! Need to work on that reading comprehension, fella.
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MURRICA BEST! MURRICA BEST!
It’s no wonder you can’t read properly with your education system.
It’s hilarious that you have to keep making shit up. Your only response is to shout louder when you’re losing.
It’s a shame that your country doesn’t have a war on at the moment, you’re exactly the type of D student that your politicians love using as cannon fodder. Probably won’t have long to wait though.
