Substackers Against Far-Right Extremists (FRE)

A collective letter to Substack leadership

I joined Substack because I was a fan of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from An American and knew a number of academics who had started Newsletters. I was leaving Facebook, had no luck with the traditional blogs, and wanted a new space to explore my ideas about/around Tolkien’s legendarium (and related topics) during my retirement. I heard the rumors about Nazi newsletters, but recent investigation into how Substack is promoting far-right extremists sounds far too much like what is happening on Xitter. So I’m sharing this collective letter:

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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 ¹ban 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 [paywalled] 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

1. The original collective letter title was “Nazis,” but in my experience (and from my reading on the topic), the problem is not just “Nazis” but the coalitions forming between a number of groups including but not limited to alt-right, militias, Nazis/neo-Nazis, Men’s Right’s Activists (MRAs), incels, Christian nationalists, Dominionists, White Supremacists, and, as I am just learning more about, Hindu Supremacists, and, increasingly, former Leftists going hard right, plus a number of far-right political parties gaining power around the world. So, I’m using “Far-Right Extremists (FRE)” as an umbrella term. But I did not change the text of the collective letter.