Substack writers say the newsletter ban is bad for business

Why Should Substack Be Promoted on Twitter? Comments on Elon Musk’s Delay in the Decay of the December Jet Assassination

The change to limit the promotion of links to Substack appears to have been made in response to owner Musk support of free speech on the platform. It is a problem for Substack writers, who have found it hard to get people to sign up for their newsletter because of the change.

To be clear, this is somewhat consistent behavior from Musk. The free speech promises were always puffery, and that’s been clear ever since that hot minute in December when Twitter went nuclear on links to other social media sites like Mastodon, Instagram, and Facebook. But at least he bothered attempting to make an excuse for that one — he claimed that platforms allowing the ElonJet account that tracked the location of his private jet were handing out “assassination coordinates” and putting his child’s life in danger.

“Given my massive Twitter following, I heavily rely on tweets to convert new subscribers,” says Matt Swider, author of The Shortcut. “My goal is to reach people on their platform of choice, so when platforms are at war like this, it only hurts the creators.”

Newcomer already has more subscribers on Substack (more than 58,000) than followers on Twitter (~37,800), so he believes he’ll be safe. He remains unhappy with how things are going. Newcomer says every platform matters when you are an independent creator. “So it’s extremely disappointing that Elon Musk has talked such a big game about supporting independent voices and then seems to be cutting them off at the knees.”

To Tweet or Not to Tweet: How Does Musk and Taibbi Reveal What He Learned from Twitter? An Analysis of Musk and the Toy Model

If Taibbi’s name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, perhaps the phrase “Twitter Files” might. Using access granted by Twitter CEO and self-avowed free speech enthusiast Elon Musk, Taibbi and other journalists have shared internal Twitter information that was intended to reveal how corrupt the company’s previous leadership was. (What they actually revealed was Jack Dorsey’s personal email address and some sloppy journalism. Oops.

“Since sharing links to my articles is a primary reason I come to this platform, I was alarmed and asked what was going on,” he tweeted. He said that he was given the option of “posting articles on Twitter instead.” (Again, no word on who gave that ultimatum.) Taibbi says that he plans to stay with Substack and use Notes, which he says will come with a price as far as future reports are concerned.

Was that really dramatic? Sure, maybe — but if you believed that he actually believed it, you could see where he was coming from. But how do you figure out the logic of shutting down a competitor with Musk’s promises to support free speech? If you’re Taibbi, or a number of other Substack writers, maybe you don’t. You may just allow him to have his toy and move on.