Substack to Remove Some Nazi Newsletters After Being Called Out

The decision arrives after Platformer and other newsletters threatened to leave the service if the company did not remove openly Nazi publications

Substack said that it will remove some publications that support Nazis from its services after backlash over the company’s initial refusal to remove accounts that endorse Nazi ideology, Platformer reports.

The company was adamant that the decision was not a reversal of it previous comments, per Platformer, but a reconsideration of how its policies are interpreted. In a statement to the technology 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 writers on Substack. We appreciate the input from everyone. Writers 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 working on tools for user moderation so Substack users can set and refine the terms of their own experience on the platform.”

Last month, Jonathan M. Katz published an article in The Atlantic titled “Substack Has a Nazi Problem” and reported that 16 newsletters contained “overt Nazi symbols, including the swastika and the sonnenrad, in their logos or in prominent graphics.” Katz estimated that white supremacist Richard Spencer and his co-writers were “grossing at least $9,000 a year and potentially many times that.” 

Following Katz’s reporting, more than 200 Substack writers wrote an open letter to the Substack’s founders posing the question: “Why are you platforming and monetising Nazis?” 

In a Dec. 21 blog post, 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 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.”

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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 leave the service if the company did not remove openly Nazi publications.

“Even in a polarized world, there remains broad agreement that the slaughter of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust was an atrocity. 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,” wrote Platformer’s editor, Casey Newton, in a Jan. 4 post. “If it won’t remove the Nazis, why should we expect the platform to remove any other harm?”