Coop Scoop: Stop Substack from Spreading Nazi Propaganda
An Open Letter from Substackers to its Founders
By Marc Cooper
December 14, 2023
Dear Friends and Followers: Below is a letter to the Substack founders that was drafted as part of a group of Substack contributors (as this newsletter is) seeking answers to questions about the platforming and monetizing of Nazis. We are all publishing the letter on our own individual Substacks today for visibility, and to make our readers aware of our asks and concerns. With any luck you already have, or soon will have, seen this on a large number of other Substacks. I am just about a Free Speech absolutist. I also support the right of individual publishers to freely decide who they care or do not to use their platforms to spread information they find dangerous, especially if it is monetized. If Nazis want to stand on a public street corner and spew their hate, so be it. They are protected by the First Amendment. But I choose to not support them on this private network that allows them to build mailing lists for more pro-Nazi propaganda while making money doing so. Here is the letter to the founders of Substack.
A collective letter to Substack leadership
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 ban 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 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 ++
From Marc: Thanks for reading. I am dedicating this coming to year to doing whatever I can to encourage and build a broad mutli-partisan Populat Front Against Fascism that spans from reasonable Republicans through the Democrats to Independents to rational Greens and Socialists.. The Coop Scoop will be part of that effort while also covering other areas. We will have a simple unified agenda: defense of democracy and defeat of pro-fascist forces. Period.
My solid perception is that this country is sleepwalking directly toward an immediate authoritarian future as Donald Trump is now running as an explicit “dictator” and his deluded, fanaticized and often dangerously ignorant followers including 95% of House Republicans and a portion of the Senate are in lock-step with them. And they currently have the clear political advantage.
The US Supreme Court has an anti-democratic conservative majority that now seems poised to set up a nationwide ban on the most popular form of abortion and not be counted as a check against authoritarian rule.
The Democratic Party, as a whole, seems incapable of imagining let alone effectively countering the pro-authoritarian forces that are gaining strength. The party must be central to that Popular Front but it has yet to engage in any convincing way and we the people must do the heavy lifting or our children and theirs will pay the consequences.
Yes, this is also a plea for more funding for Coop Scoop. I have lots of ideas how to move forward on this and ways to more deeply engage you, the reader. But I lack the resources that only you can provide. Please spread the open letter above and please make any contribution you can. If you are flat broke and cannot afford $4 or $5 a month, subscribe for free.
Thanks. In solidarity, MARC.
Thank you for bringing attention to this issue: white nationalism is akin to a cancerous growth that's slowly and insidiously overtaking civil society. "X" (aka Twitter - how stupid was THAT attempt at rebranding?) has turned into such a white nationalist (and Christofascist) cesspool that's it's almost unbearable. My only hope is that the continued exodus of advertisers who refuse to be associated with fasism will eventually cause X to go into bankruptcy.
I believe that there should be 99.9% (not 99.999) free speech on any PUBLIC platform, such as the soapbox in the park or its equivalent online (which Substack is not). Substack has the right to print whatever it wants, but free speech also includes the right to boycott private platforms of any sort that you don't like. I realize the danger of the "slippery slope" to free speech. The bottom line is that non-nazis need to use their own free speech rights to put the nazis in their place--free speech is not just a right but a responsibility--which is why I love your idea about creating an anti-fascist network of journalists--count me in (I'm already preparing to launch my attack of fascism with upcoming coverage during election-year 2024 of the Fascistic-Five who have taken over the city government of Huntington Beach). So, substack can do what they want, and it's hard to decide where to draw the line as a private publisher. I get that; but, for crying out loud, I would much rather read stories posted by sex workers than Nazis, and outright Nazism (as opposed to critically examining it) is a damn good place to draw that line. Substack needs to give a definitive policy response so that we can all make up our own minds where to go from there.