So about six months ago, something happened to a bunch of writers—myself included. Our followers and subscribers stagnated. At first, we all kind of just assumed it was a slow month. Then we started to see something weird happen.
No matter how much we posted, our numbers shrank. We kept trying to promote, and no one was actually biting. Some, such as myself, started to confront customer service, only to get very vague answers.
Eventually, most of us came to the same conclusion: we’re being gagged.
All of us had one thing in common: we were left-leaning writers. It’s not happening with other writing genres. Just ours and publications run by us. Most of us have been gagged on other sites, too.
All the “tells” are there, including my numbers temporarily going up when I confronted Substack’s customer service over it. They have the right to change the algorithm, but for a “free speech” company, they aren’t living up to their guarantee.
We know what this is, especially since Trump took office.
I don’t find it to be a coincidence that all of us saw our free subscribers shrink months after Trump took office. Some of us, myself included, saw explosive growth during Biden’s era. And you’re telling me that’s normal?
No it’s not fucking normal.
We know what it is.
We know because so many other platforms bent the knee and kissed the ring.
We know because Substack has refused to boot actual Nazis off the platform, but has given warnings to leftists over “hate speech.”
We know censorship when it’s being done to us. This is a form of “soft censorship.”
I’m sick of having platforms kneecap people who want to actually talk about what’s going on.
So, I don’t know if I’m going to get booted from Substack for this accusation but I’m done ignoring the elephant in the room. It’s not just me seeing this. It’s also
and too.I want to actually start up a channel where we pool our stories and our followers and split the tab. I just need help doing this. And no, I don’t want it to be on Substack, since they clearly don’t seem to want to have us on the site.
Advice is welcome. Tell me what you’ve been seeing. And if anyone can help this project launch, HMU.
Yep.
A lot of the algorithm changes that I’ve figured out require tricky engagement
It’s not necessarily some secret sauce , but it requires more engagement than just writing , and I believe Substack is doing that to make an even platform. Although my voice is not the bullhorn it was in January when I pulled 1000 and 2000 likes for an article on why Republican member X is a piece of shit.
That’s one reason why I’ve slowly pulled away from political reporting to favoring philosophical , psychological and queer specific content
Honestly writing pure geopolitical is painful and depressing
I moved my free Substack away, mainly due to this. I am not sure it is an ideological slant as much as it is (at least for free riders like I was) a way to emphasize more profitable 'stacks. I think that unless you have "thousands of paid subscribers" they just deprioritize your reach, regardless of how much you pimp your writing on Notes.
This began in earnest for me in April, about the time they were aggressively trying to close their latest round of financing. I noticed that while I got ones and twos of new subscribers, I would see that others would be dropped to keep it right about at 2K total.
I think it is the money more than the conservative vs. liberal.
Last point, I noticed (and still notice) that there are a lot of Twitter "nazi" vermin floating around shitting on comment threads. I guess that their new investors are fine as long as it drives eyeballs and reads.