this post was submitted on 22 Dec 2023
849 points (96.4% liked)

Technology

59421 readers
3619 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
849
Substack says it will not remove or demonetize Nazi content (www.theverge.com)
submitted 11 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
420 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

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.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

I feel like you feel this is a clever gotcha, but I don't follow.

If substack (or most any private platform) decided not to host any pro-choice content, many people would probably say that's a shit move. Some anti-abortion people might support it, maybe. What's your point?

You shouldn't evaluate the situation with a naive "did they remove content? Any content at all?" metric. You need to consider what was removed and why.

It's also important to remember we're not talking about the government silencing or compelling speech. We're talking about private parties moderating their platform. It's important that they retain the legal right to choose what to say. And then the public can jeer and refuse to associate with them if they use their rights badly.