Welcome to this week’s edition of Stacks & Spoons, a weekly substack for bookish girls, gays and theys, written by author Jen Wilde. If you enjoy it, make sure to subscribe here.
In 2020, a writer shared a story on Twitter (no, I will never call it anything else), that has stayed with me.
In the story, the writer was sitting at a bar when a guy walked in and sat nearby. The bartender took one look at the new guy and said, “No. Get out.” The guy tried to argue, saying he just wanted to buy a drink, but the bartender wouldn’t have it. He made a move for a bat underneath the bar and the guy left.
Confused at the interaction, the writer asked the bartender what had just happened. The bartender explained that the guy was wearing a vest with Nazi symbols on it. He says you have to nip it in the bud when one of them comes in, because even if he seems nice and you serve them, eventually he brings his mates and suddenly your bar becomes a Nazi bar. And when that happens, you can’t just tell them to leave because then you have some real trouble. Their end goal is to be terrible people.
So the only way to prevent that is to say, “No. Get out,” the moment the first Nazi walks through the door.
You’d think by now, as a society, we’d be agreed that one Nazi is too many – whether that’s in a bar or on Twitter or right here on Substack. With antisemitism on the rise (and, frustratingly and incorrectly being equated with anti-zionism), it’s more important than ever for platforms to take action on hate speech and the publishers who profit from it. We have all watched Elon Musk gleefully turn Twitter into a safe space for white supremacists to gather. My hope is that the founders of Substack are smarter, braver, and have a stronger moral compass.
We need to say “No, get out,” the moment the first Nazi walks through the door.
Below is a letter to the Substack founders that an incredible group of Substack publishers wrote seeking answers to questions about the platforming and monetizing of Nazis. They are all publishing the letter on their own individual Substacks today for visibility, and to make their readers aware of their asks and concerns.
I am joining these publishers in this action and sharing the letter here, too.
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