More than 200 Substack authors asked the platform to explain why it’s “platforming and monetizing Nazis,” and now they have an answer straight from co-founder Hamish McKenzie:

I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either—we wish no-one held those views. 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.

While McKenzie offers no evidence to back these ideas, this tracks with the company’s previous stance on taking a hands-off approach to moderation. In April, Substack CEO Chris Best appeared on the Decoder podcast and refused to answer moderation questions. “We’re not going to get into specific ‘would you or won’t you’ content moderation questions” over the issue of overt racism being published on the platform, Best said. McKenzie followed up later with a similar statement to the one today, saying “we don’t like or condone bigotry in any form.”

      • @TrickDacy
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        11 year ago

        Yeah I chose it because I wanted to be a dipshit hipster edgelord 😎

        • SatansMaggotyCumFart
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          -31 year ago

          I like to accuse people of blocking me because I don’t understand how Lemmy works.

          • @TrickDacy
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            01 year ago

            Right? Me too. When replies disappear from my inbox that’s when I know: “I am just a weird idiot”. In addition to the refrain in my brain: I like to have people imagine sexual bodily fluids oozing from the devil’s bunghole with rotting meat and maggots. Due to this, I also confirm that I am definitely cool and popular with all the other Internet hipsters"

            • SatansMaggotyCumFart
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              01 year ago

              I wanted to be a mall cop but after failing both the physical and psychological screening I decided to tell other people how they should use social media.

              It’s all about making the world a better place, you know?

              • @TrickDacy
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                01 year ago

                That’s awesome bro! Shit flowing from cunts!!

                  • @TrickDacy
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                    -11 year ago

                    But with like moldy jizz stained rags that came from a demon’s pussy fart. See how quirky I am??

    • KptnAutismus
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      -291 year ago

      not everyone who doesn’t want to censor nazis is a nazi. while i think hate has no place anywhere online, i agree that free speech is important. substack should definetely stop someone hateful from earning money on that platform one way or another.

        • JustEnoughDucks
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          1 year ago

          They can’t. That would break the illusion of being an “enlightened centrist.”

          I.E. votes right wing, sees themselves as slightly more moderate, but sympathizer and defender of the far right and Nazis.

          Or one of the many foreign troll farms found to be pushing the “enlightened centrist” narrative.

          • KptnAutismus
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            -191 year ago

            i’m by no means any kind of centrist or right leaning and i do have very strong opinions about nazis. but free speech on the internet is a very important thing, while i also believe hate speech should be censored.

            tl;dr, conflicting opinions != Nazi, dumbass.

            • @Eldritch
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              61 year ago

              It’s not the conflicting opinions. It’s your lack of commitment to your own professed opinions. You literally stated you believe hate speech should be censored. But all your arguments to this point are that they should not. Where is your consistency?

              • KptnAutismus
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                -21 year ago

                it’s almost like i have two opinions that conflict each other…

                • @Eldritch
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                  61 year ago

                  That’s cold cognitive dissonance. And it is not something to be proud of or a good thing.

        • @[email protected]
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          -11 year ago

          Why are you so combative? You responded to a post rebutting a desire to censor speech from a legal perspective. Being opposed to defining any speech as illegal and being a nazi sympathizer are two very different things. You do not, in fact, have to choose one.

        • KptnAutismus
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          -181 year ago

          i don’t think i will, this is complicated and i don’t care enough. i am not taking sides.

          • CazRaX
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            -41 year ago

            Won’t work here, on here it is black or white, either hate Nazis and anything that even approaches it or you are one. Every other subject in the world will be grey and nuanced, and they will argue minor points to death, except for this.

            • Flying Squid
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              61 year ago

              If you do not support removing Nazis from the public sphere, you aren’t necessarily a Nazi. But you do support Nazis. That didn’t make a difference between 1939 and 1945 and it doesn’t make a difference now.

              • @feedum_sneedson
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                1 year ago

                I agree if we’re talking about literal, actual Nazis waving the flag and everything. The pushback, which I agree with, begins when people start calling everyone a Nazi, or a fascist. It has got ridiculous, I’m embarrassingly leftist and get accused of it.

                You might complain when that practice of conflating slightly differing leftist views with fascism backfires and results in people accidentally defending literal Nazis, but you shouldn’t have diluted the term in the first place.

                • Flying Squid
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                  51 year ago

                  These are literal, actual Nazis waving the flag and everything.

                  From the article:

                  This latest clash over moderation comes after The Atlantic reported on Substack publications with “overt Nazi symbols” in their logos, several from prominent white nationalists, and other posts on Substack supporting those views.

                • TacoButtPlug
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                  21 year ago

                  I’m just replying to tell you I hear you. We definitely don’t want to lose the weight that word carries. I’m glad the term is being accurately used in this case.