New York Times journalist rage quits Substack over inability to censor everything he deems 'hate speech' and 'extremism'

Major publication tried to hoax Substack into proactively censoring newsletters.

A cancel culture activist behind a far-left, pro-censorship movement of Substack writers is rage quitting from the platform, after he failed to push the company in the direction of full-blown “content moderation” (censorship).

Platformer, a Substack newsletter with over 173,000 subscribers, announced Thursday that they are quitting the platform and moving to Ghost.

Platform’s founder, Casey Newton, a leftist journalist who hosts a podcast with The New York Times, has spent recent weeks advancing the false idea that Substack is inundated with a nazi and antisemitism problem.

There has long been a concerted campaign to force Substack to engage in “content moderation,” or censorship of ideas that corporate journalists and their masters disagree with. Substack, for its part, has remained true to its mission, refusing to engage in ideological censorship. Substack has, however, rightly removed platforms that engage in unlawful behavior and/or incitement to violence.

Another initiative on this front began in November, when an article in The Atlantic surfaced claiming that Nazis were using Substack in large numbers. This article was entirely baseless because it displayed no supporting evidence to maintain the core accusation.

Nonetheless, this Atlantic article was followed by a Substackers Against Nazis movement of almost 250 writers, who signed on to an open letter demanding that the company proactively engage in political censorship beyond their free speech-oriented content policy.

Last week, Mr Newton declared that he conducted an analysis on Substack’s apparent nazi problem, and found that there was truly an epidemic at hand. Similar to The Atlantic piece, Newton did not show his work.

Cancel Culture Warrior Casey Newton proudly displays his Monkeypox vaccine record / X.com

“Over the past few days, the Platformer team analyzed dozens of Substacks for pro-Nazi content,” he writes. “Earlier this week, I met with Substack to press my case that they should remove content that praises Nazis from the network. Late today, we submitted a list of accounts that we believe to be in violation of the company’s existing policies against incitement to violence. I am scheduled to meet with the company again tomorrow.”

The two core accusations from both Platformer and The Atlantic were that Substack was *profiting* off of Nazis (through its cut of paid subcriptions) and that the problem was truly out of control.

But the truth was far less compelling than Platformer had claimed.

In fact, all of these apparent “nazi platforms” had a grand combined total of about 100 readers, and none of them had a single paid subscriber, according to a letter from the cofounders of Substack.

To put it bluntly, the whole “Nazi problem” on Substack is a hoax, through and through.

After Newton failed to deceive Substack into changing its policies, he proceeded to rage quit the platform.

In a post announcing his departure from Substack on Thursday, he let his true agenda shine through.

There’s a lot of virtue signaling mumbo jumbo, so let’s cut to the chase and make notice of the slippery slope below. Nazis have suddenly become identified as “far-right publications” and anything else The New York Times podcaster determines as “hate speech” and “extremism.”

Moreover, The Dossier reviewed Mr Newton’s X account and found zero mentions of antisemitism. Mr Social Justice Warrior clearly couldn’t care less about Jew hatred, he just wants to advance his ideology.

Newton and his comrades couldn’t get Substack to accommodate their ideology, so he’s rage quitting to another platform that will.

The Platformer/Atlantic campaign reminds us of the importance of the First Amendment and America’s founding principles, which demonstrate the necessity of free speech. Without adhering to the principle of free speech, we are left with nothing but tyrannical narrative shapers and mass government censorship.

Good riddance to Platformer (they should really call themselves Deplatformer), and good on Substack for staying true to their core principles!