Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
1–10 of 55 posts
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#2I'm of the mindset that it takes work to keep democracy, freedom and egalitarianism alive. You can't just let anyone publish anything and think that it will all work out in the end.
It is tough because separating freedom of expression from hate speech is hard and prone to errors, but the alternate is to let Nazis and other hate groups to grow and strengthen. History has shown that when evil is given a platform, it grows instead of withering away in the light.
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#3I'm of the mindset that it takes work to keep democracy, freedom and egalitarianism alive. You can't just let anyone publish anything and think that it will all work out in the end. It is tough because separating freedom of expression from hate speech is hard and prone to errors, but the alternate is to let Nazis and other hate groups to grow and strengthen. History has shown that when evil is given a platform, it gr…
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#4For those who support this, could you name another instance throughout history where people restricting speech of others ended up being "in the right", no matter the circumstance?
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#5So .. is it 1 in 10 posts that are allegedly "neo-Nazi" content? 1 in 10,000? 1 in 10,000,000? What's the threshold where if X% of posts on any given platform are alleged to be wrong people revolt and cancel that service? Is that threshold higher or lower than what a motivated group that wanted to destroy the service could produce?
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#6For those who support this, could you name another instance throughout history where people restricting speech of others ended up being "in the right", no matter the circumstance?
If you went into most restaurants or bars or similar spaces, and you started talking publicly about pro-Nazi stuff, you’d have the owner of the establishment come over and ask you to leave. I don’t see how anyone can think this is unusual or new or not expected.
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#7> At least 16 of the newsletters that I reviewed have overt Nazi symbols, including the swastika and the sonnenrad, in their logos or in prominent graphics.
> Andkon’s Reich Press, for example, calls itself “a National Socialist newsletter”; its logo shows Nazi banners on Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, and one recent post features a racist caricature of a Chinese person. A Substack called White-Papers, bearing the tagline “Your pro-White policy destination,” is one of several that openly promote the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory that inspired deadly mass shootings at a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, synagogue; two Christchurch, New Zealand, mosques; an El Paso, Texas, Walmart; and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket.
> Other newsletters make prominent references to the “Jewish Question.” Several are run by nationally prominent white nationalists; at least four are run by organizers of the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—including the rally’s most notorious organizer, Richard Spencer.
> 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.” Several, including Spencer’s, sport official Substack “bestseller” badges, indicating that they have at a minimum hundreds of paying subscribers. A subscription to the newsletter that Spencer edits and writes for costs $9 a month or $90 a year, which suggests that he and his co-writers are grossing at least $9,000 a year and potentially many times that. Substack, which takes a 10 percent cut of subscription revenue, makes money when readers pay for Nazi newsletters.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/substack-e...
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#8I'm of the mindset that it takes work to keep democracy, freedom and egalitarianism alive. You can't just let anyone publish anything and think that it will all work out in the end. It is tough because separating freedom of expression from hate speech is hard and prone to errors, but the alternate is to let Nazis and other hate groups to grow and strengthen. History has shown that when evil is given a platform, it gr…
Perhaps the reasons why those groups grow so easily should be addressed instead of treating it like it is an inevitable force of nature that can have a dam placed in the right spot to keep it eternally contained.
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#9For those who support this, could you name another instance throughout history where people restricting speech of others ended up being "in the right", no matter the circumstance?
If you went into most restaurants or bars or similar spaces, and you started talking publicly about pro-Nazi stuff, you’d have the owner of the establishment come over and ask you to leave. I don’t see how anyone can think this is unusual or new or not expected.
It should be noted that for many, pro-Nazi might mean you are against immigration laws or for trump.
Re: Substack faces user revolt over anti-censorship stance on neo-Nazis
#10For those who support this, could you name another instance throughout history where people restricting speech of others ended up being "in the right", no matter the circumstance?
Twitter removing the revenge porn of Hunter Biden comes to mind. But that's my opinion.
What about Kiwi Farms and Stormfront? I'm pretty sure that was right too.