A few weeks back, the Atlantic ran an article by Jonathan Katz with the headline Substack Has a Nazi Problem. In what should be no surprise given what happened earlier this year with Best’s interview, the Nazis very quickly realized that Substack was a welcome home for them:
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Substack Turns On Its ‘Nazis Welcome!’ Sign
(If you signal publicly that you allow Nazis (and allow them to make money), don’t be surprised when the Nazis arrive. In droves. Your reputation is what you allow.)
https://www.techdirt.com/2023/12/26/substack-turns-on-its-nazis-welcome-sign/
Ken “Popehat” White explained it well in his own (yes, Substack) post on all of this.
https://popehat.substack.com/p/substack-has-a-nazi-opportunity
@Beanc what's the world coming to
Eventually, the Substack founders had to respond. They couldn’t stare off into the distance like Best did during the Nilay Patel interview in April. So another founder, Hamish McKenzie, finally published a Note saying “yes, we allow Nazis and we’re not going to stop.” Of course, as is too often the case on these things, he tried to couch it as a principled stance:
https://substack.com/@hamish/note/c-45811343