Nazis Are Bad, M'kay

Substack offers a platform to Nazis in a supposed effort to engender free speech. Why that is a bullshit argument, and why this complicated issue offers at least one simple place to start.

At the end of November, writer and fellow Substacker, Jonathan Katz published an essay in the Atlantic called Substack Has A Nazi Problem. The piece lays out in detail, several chilling examples of pro-Nazi and white nationalist groups that seem to be thriving on this platform.

Katz rightly notes that the pro-Nazi accounts take up just a small fraction of the tens of thousands of creators currently using Substack. However, despite a terms of service agreement that lists “hate” as a direct violation, Substack has allowed these pro-Nazi accounts to continue unfettered.

For its part, Substack’s three co-founders released a statement attempting to clarify their position,

“Substack is a platform that is built on freedom of expression, and helping writers publish what they want to write, some of that writing is going to be objectionable or offensive. Substack has a content moderation policy that protects against extremes—like incitements to violence—but we do not subjectively censor writers…