Why Substack Sucks

Imagine if Facebook paid Ben Shapiro. That’s Substack Pro

Substack lets you send email newsletters. Like a platform it attracts bad actors, but unlike a platform Substack pays them directly. Imagine if Facebook paid Ben Shapiro a salary. That’s Substack Pro.

Substack Pro is not a platform. Substack Pro hires writers, for thumping amounts. Substack pays these guys a years salary if they publish on a schedule. Substack denies that they’re hiring anyone, but what do words mean? That’s literally how you hire a writer.

You just hired writers.
Substack: No we didn’t. We gave them a ‘sum’ to write articles for us.

Yeah, you just described hiring a writer.
Substack: [waves hand] these are not the droids you’re looking for.

While Facebook can deny responsibility for Ben Shapiro’s hate speech (“we’re just a platform!”), Substack cannot. They fucking pay writers directly. This is brazen even by Silicon Valley standards. The ‘neutral platform’ defense is sacred, one does not simply pay users directly. We don’t know who Substack Pro is paying, but now it’s basically TERF Island over there. Lots of white people peddling hate. And they get paid straight out of the corporate account.

We’ve seen instances of tech companies allowing hate group leaders to acquire…