Substack Under Attack; Elle Griffin Pens Clarifying Letter In Response

Hi everyone,

I’ve been meaning to share this letter I signed defending Substack’s free speech principles after several concerted attacks and smear campaigns on the basis of some of the platform’s offensive, conspiratorial members.

Thanks to

Elle Griffin

for writing this robust piece signed by Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi, Richard Dawkins, Lee Fang, Edward Snowden, and other prolific writers on the platform. Elle powerfully articulates why this platform ought to remain a free speech haven — which means welcoming ideas we believe are wrong, harmful, and even repulsive.

Here’s a sample of the letter:

One thing mainstream media outlets misunderstand: Substack is not one platform, it is thousands of platforms, and you get to pick which ones to be part of. And Substack has come up with a powerful way to moderate those platforms: Rather than rely on the company to hire a team of moderators, Substack democratized the process, giving full moderation control to writers.

You can read it in full here:

Substack shouldn’t decide what we read