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.”
Good for them. I’m all for allowing people make their own choices about what kind of content they want to see instead of a corporation/government deciding for them.
I can’t think of a single thing we’ve succesfully gotten rid of by banning it. I however can think of several examples where it has had an opposite effect.
Nazi Germany. We banned the fuck out of them and it worked out great until people started to forget why.
I totally agree.
If I don’t want to see something, I should be able to block it myself.
I don’t want other people deciding what I should and should not see. That’s patronizing.
if the nazis come into power, you will not be able to “decide not to see them”
I don’t think preemptive fascism is the solution. The world many people seem to be advocating for here doesn’t honestly seem that much different from one led by nazies. They just replace jews and gays with other groups of people they don’t like.
