Can Substack rise above the controversies?

In early June, bestselling Canadian author Naomi Klein launched a Substack.

In announcing it on Instagram, Klein said, “I don’t really post on Twitter [X] anymore because of fascism and I can’t really get the full grasp of Instagram.” She presented Substack, a blogging and newsletter platform, as a way to simultaneously stay current and step away from the chaos that often prevails online. 

Many on the internet were quick to correct her. 

“Writers of good conscience should not be building new media companies on the back of a platform that opportunistically coddles white supremacy,” U.S. tech reporter Karl Bode wrote in an article questioning Klein’s decision to join Substack. 

Klein did not respond to CBC News’s requests for comment, but in a recent conversation with standup comedian and podcaster W. Kamau Bell, she said she had experienced “a really, really lovely welcome” on Substack.

Substack has become a powerful economic engine for many independent writers and journalists, a place where they can make money telling unique stories that might not have a home at other media outlets.

Canadians seem to have taken to it — the platform reports that Canada has become its third biggest market, following only the United States and United Kingdom.

In launching a Substack, Klein joins high-profile names like economist Paul Krugman, journalist Matt Taibbi and CBS News editor-in-chief Bari Weiss, as well as author Margaret Atwood and musicians Patti Smith and Charli XCX.  

But over the last few years, users and journalists have noted that a number of Substack newsletters promote white supremacy, Holocaust denial and neo-Nazism. An investigation by the  Guardian in February found the site not only takes a cut of subscription fees paid for such content but algorithmically promotes it to users.

As access to AI writing tools has grown, there’s also been concern that Substack could, like much of the internet, fill up with synthetic slop.

“I’ve read a lot of essays on Substack that were clearly AI-generated,” said Casey Newton, who co-hosts the New York Times tech podcast Hard Fork and writes the popular newsletter Platformer.

To address this issue, Substack recently introduced an AI detection tool called Pangram. Newton told CBC News “it’s really smart” that the platform is trying to increase AI-use transparency, but says the measure speaks to a larger issue with Substack.

“Do I think there’s something hilarious about the fact that they’re more worried about the fact that ChatGPT is on Substack than literal Nazis? Yes, of course.”

A new way to publish

For the uninitiated, Substack was founded in 2017 by New Zealand journalist Hamish McKenzie and University of Waterloo graduates Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi. It began as an easy way for readers to find and subscribe to email newsletters (referred to as individual Substacks), which are archived and accessed through blog-like author pages.

Authors can activate a paid tier for their Substack, which hides certain content behind a paywall. Substack hosts non-monetized newsletters at no cost to authors or subscribers and takes 10 per cent of the revenue generated by subscriptions. 

Since 2019, the Silicon Valley firm Andreessen Horowitz has helped raise more than $180 million US in venture capital for Substack, which has led to questions about outside influence. An advocate of free speech at all costs, firm co-founder Marc Andreessen has said that “sustainable development,” “social responsibility” and “tech ethics” are enemies of Andreessen Horowitz’s mission.

As Substack developed and grew, the platform introduced an app and homepage that allowed users to scroll through and read newsletter posts. They also began to add podcasts, video content and social media-type posts called Notes. 

The Substack team says the new features are all geared toward user growth, but many users feel Substack’s original promise — a quiet, community-oriented approach that provides a pipeline from an author’s keyboard to their audience’s inbox — has become too cluttered with unwanted, extraneous content.

In a recent viral Note, writer Helen Roy wrote, “Substack I love you but have we reinvented doomscrolling for nerds[?]” 

“All of the incentives of a platform point towards maximizing screen time,” said the New York Times’s Newton, noting he wouldn’t be surprised if free newsletters are soon forced to carry ads.

“If you talk to [Substack] today they would probably say, ‘We’re not going to do any of that’…. But keep in mind, venture capitalists invest on 10-year time horizons, and Substack is, what, nine years old?”

Mark Swierszcz, the head of Canadian partnerships at Substack, says the platform is committed to a good user experience for both readers and writers. For example, he points out that Substack allows authors to own and, if they choose to leave, export their subscriber base. 

“If we were trying to lock something in,” Swierszcz said, referring to writers’ content, “none of this would work.” 

Content moderation questions

Swierszcz is also firm on the issue of content moderation, arguing that Substack’s refusal to oust extremists from the platform doesn’t represent a hole in their values but a commitment to upholding them.

He echoes a 2023 Note from Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie, in which he wrote, “I just want to make it clear that we don’t like Nazis either … But given that, we don’t think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away — in fact, it makes it worse.” 

Swierszcz said journalists “come to us and they say, ‘We want to be on Substack because we know there won’t be any moderation, there won’t be any thumbs on the scales, and we want direct relationships with our audiences … It’s a feature that we’re very proud of that actually brings more people to our platform than it pushes away.”

Newton was one of the creators the platform pushed away.

In 2024, he and his team at Platformer highlighted six neo-Nazi accounts on Substack. The platform ended up banning five of them for direct violations of user guidelines, but when Substack wouldn’t respond to user pressure to alter its moderation policies, Newton took Platformer to rival newsletter and blog site Ghost. 

“We didn’t want to play any role in helping to build monetization infrastructure for literal 1930s Nazis,” Newton explained. 

In making the move to Ghost, Newton saw his subscriber base jump from 160,000 to more than 200,000.

Writing from Peterborough, Ont., Danielle French’s daily experience with Substack is far removed from platform wars and censorship debates. 

“I’m not trying to build a media empire,” she said. “I’m just trying to talk about my life. But I don’t want to do that on social media.”

Platform for local news

French, who has written lifestyle and recipe newsletters since 2011, moved her content to Substack in 2021. She says she was initially drawn to the platform’s clean interface and is grateful that Substack’s writing tools remain simple and user-friendly. 

French says she enjoys the ability to easily publish and find an audience.

“Look at how many local papers are actually just struggling,” French said. “Local news is so important for communities … and Substack is actually just awesome for that.”

While executives debate growth metrics and critics warn of platform decay, writers like French remain focused on the promise that initially drew them to the site.

“[You can just] write it, put it out there,” French said. “That’s what I like Substack for.”