As you may already know, Substack is a tool for publishing email newsletters like this one. The idea is that anyone can start a newsletter, using Substack’s (very nice) interface, and we have the option to charge subscribers. Substack advertises itself as a tool, an app, that functions like a marketplace. Using the app, readers can find topics of interest, and creators can get compensated for the labor we put into our creations. All that Substack asks is for a percentage of our subscription income, to pay for maintaining the site, support, etc. Honestly, a fair deal.Except Substack is not merely an app. It’s actually a publication. Why do I say that? Because Substack’s leadership pays a secret, select group of people to write for the platform.
So, the percentage going to Substack also went into advances to racists, misogynists, and transphobes they were paying from the beginning. The trolls were not just welcome, but a built in part of the mechanism to generate traffic. Writers from marginalized communities got suckered into funding our oppressors.
Read more at: Here’s why Substack’s scam worked so well • Buttondown
