Substack links are now marked as unsafe by Twitter
Why Twitter Hasn’t Changed Its Policies to Add Links to Substack? Commentary on Musk’s Dispatch with The Verge
The move to limit the promotion of links to Substack is a move that seems to clash with Musk’s support for free speech on the platform. The change is a big problem for Substack writers, who have to find a new way to convert new subscribers to their newsletter.
The issue could make it difficult for writers to talk about what’s happening on the platform in their newsletters. While screenshots of tweets could work in some cases, they’re less trustworthy because they don’t provide a direct link to the source. Screenshots also won’t help you if you’re trying to, say, embed a video that someone posted on Twitter. Given the Blue perks relating to making the video uploading experience better, it seems that Twitter is interested in becoming a video platform.
The transition has been difficult for some people, even if they appear to fit in at the micro-blogging site. Earlier this week, WordPress’ API access was suspended, making it so users couldn’t auto-share posts to the platform. It was restored after a while and the company said it will work with the service to ensure it doesn’t go down.
Buckenham told The Verge that the email was the only communication they’d received from Twitter about the suspension and that they hadn’t expected anything to change until the end of April based on the company’s statement that it’d be depreciating old accounts “over the next 30 days.” “I’ll confess I expected it to be a ratelimit, not the API key being revoked, though,” they said, before adding, “But overall I’m not surprised to find Twitter’s changes rolling out unpredictably.”
The new plans are too expensive for some developers. The Basic tier cost $100 a month and lets your app post a maximum of 50,000tweets every month and read 10,000 tweets per month with a limit per user. The free tier only allows you to write a letter, not read it. That wouldn’t be helpful for the Thread Reader bot, which helps you read the strings of posts on the site.
Substack author Laura Jedeed tells The Verge she got her biggest subscription spikes based on tweets that did “very well.” The person says she sees subscription bumps every time Musk does something stupid because people want to keep hearing from her. “He’s driving traffic my way by being stupid but, like everything he does, it’s killing the goose that lays the golden egg.”
Substack adds a feature called Notes, which adds very Twitter-like elements to the newsletter platform. Matt Taibbi, a journalist who has history reporting stories for Musk, said Friday that he was told by an unspecified party that “Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, which they see as a hostile rival.” He also notes that he was “given the option of posting my articles on Twitter instead of Substack.”
Matt Swider, author of The Shortcut, says that he depends on his extensive social media following to convert new subscribers. “My goal is to reach people on their platform of choice, so when platforms are at war like this, it only hurts the creators.”
However, the new limitations imposed on Substack links have users questioning Musk’s commitment to free speech — especially since this isn’t the only incident that has prevented people from posting links to other platforms. Musk banned journalists that were critical of him and banned links to other competing platforms. Musk rolled back those changes, stating major policy adjustments would be put to a vote from then on, which they haven’t.
He believes he will be safe because he already has more Substack subscribers than followers on the micro-Blogging platform. He’s still not happy with how things are going. “When you’re an independent creator, every platform matters,” Newcomer says. It’s extremely disappointing that Musk is cutting off the independence of voices when he’s talking about such a big game.
