In the name of absolute freedom of expression, Substack allows hateful content to circulate while censoring content that shouldn’t be censored (a Palestinian poet). This is increasingly concerning.
In March 2025, at the same time I was permanently leaving algorithmic social networks, I switched my newsletters to Substack because technically the platform has a high-performing recommendation system. I found a blog-like atmosphere there, with comments and conversations. I gained readers and met authors.
I knew Substack had transformed itself into a social network, with its Notes feature and recommendation algorithm, which can only lead to the same problems observed elsewhere: stigmatization of extreme viewpoints, spread of fake news and sponsored content that captures more attention than reflective, intellectual, or artistic content. I was vigilant on this point, but accepted this situation as long as my subscribers weren’t forced to go to Substack to receive my articles.
I was aware of Substack’s conflicts with pro-Nazi newsletters, a phenomenon widely commented on from 2020 to early 2024 (The Atlantic: Substack Has a Nazi Problem, TechPolicy: Substack Cofounder Defends Commercial Relationships with Nazis, Techcrunch: Substack won’t commit to proactively removing Nazi content, ensuring further fallout…). According to Substack’s creators, it’s up to readers to choose what they read and to move on from unpleasant viewpoints. This is therefore a defense of absolute freedom of expression (a defense philosophically untenable).
In early 2024, notably after a petition from Substackers, Substack removed the offending content, which was reassuring. I told myself that Substack was becoming reasonable while transforming itself into an information giant.
Yesterday, Friday, November 21, 2025 at 10pm, Ploum alerted me to the case of Joy, a Palestinian woman censored by Substack for posting a poem in a note that attracted hateful comments. Substack didn’t erase the comments, but the note with the comments!
In the meantime, Sidoine points me to a resurgence of Nazi content on Substack in July 2025 (Gizmodo: Substack Sends Push Alert for Nazi Newsletter). Supposedly by mistake, Substack prompted some subscribers to consult a pro-Nazi newsletter. This affair pushed new authors to leave Substack for Ghost. David Farrier explains his approach in An August AMA! and Some More Thoughts on Substack.
As early as January 2024, he alerts, as many others do, about Nazi content available on Substack and like many others, their removal reassures him. But during summer 2025, two events decided him to leave: Substack’s push of the Nazi letter and the blocking of a photo illustrating Palestinian genocide.
This photo was published by almost all media, notably The Guardian, to denounce the famine in Gaza. Would they have been censored by Substack?
This is more than concerning, especially since the pro-Nazi newsletter spotted by Gizmodo is still online on Substack (and has gained hundreds of subscribers since August). Substack cannot ignore its existence given the media attention it has generated.
There would therefore be a double standard. Substack censors a Palestinian poem, but leaves explicitly Nazi content online. The platform does moderate – but according to opaque and discriminatory criteria.
I browsed the notes associated with this newsletter. It’s odious. I use my right to quote to support my point.
Since February 17, 2024, the European regulation on Digital Services (DSA - Digital Services Act), adopted on October 19, 2022, is applicable to all online platforms. It imposes binding legal obligations on them, in particular to moderate content contrary to the laws of Member States, with financial sanctions that can reach up to 6% of annual worldwide turnover.
Substack is therefore in flagrant violation in Europe.
Rather than immediately leaving Substack, I will translate this article and send it to them, asking them to comply with our legislation, especially since Substack is growing exponentially among us. I will try to act from within. If nothing changes, I will draw the consequences, as many authors and journalists have before me.
If I resign myself to leaving Substack, it will be with regret: in just a few months, I’ve recreated a nice community there, which has restored my faith in the collaborative web as we knew it with blogs before the emergence of social networks.
Now Substack must choose: respect European law or lose its credibility. As for us authors, we have the freedom to migrate to other lands with our subscribers. I confess I’m not very optimistic. After the statements from Substack’s creators, I suppose there is a political bias in them. For them it is about defending freedom of expression as long as it serves their agenda. I’m staying a while longer, to see, as in a poker game.
In the meantime, I’m publishing one of Joy’s poems, which you can download freely from her book.
Joy: Echoes of a Human Dream: Have We Truly Evolved?
This question, despite its silliness, haunts me. It’s not my question, and it’s not even a casual one I saw in a sponsored ad promoting cheap articles that aren’t worth reading a single word from. But it’s the question of my little brother, who is no older than thirteen years old. He asked me with naivety, without paying attention to any answer. He asked it as if venting a buried anger that melts his chest.
I didn’t pay attention to what this little boy said. That’s just how he is - he asks a lot while making his paper kite to forget about time.
Just like the time he asked me:
"Does Paracetamol relieve the feeling of hunger the same way it relieves pain?"
And when I answered, "No,"
He responded bitterly, saying that hunger is much worse than pain. It’s another kind of ache that needs anesthetizing - more painful than headaches and bodily pain.
I shut my computer, listened to Frank Sinatra, and my eyelids gently closed, warning my eyes of the countdown into deep sleep…
Minutes passed, reaching the hour.
I wished to sleep, or for my consciousness to fade.
But the question of little Yusuf rang inside me like an alarm bell…
Why does this little one ask such a question?
Isn’t this the kind of question discussed in global newspapers?
Isn’t it the headline of Al Jazeera English?
Little Yusuf, the brave maker of kites.
He always amazed me with his precise, neat craftsmanship -
As if creating a brilliant Babylonian icon.
His kites fly bravely in the sky,
Piercing through a closed military zone,
Filled with warplanes and surveillance aircraft,
And bomb carriers stained with the blood of innocents.
They fly without a sound,
But they challenge the noise.
They defy the rockets and the aircraft.
They soar high, as if shouting into the sky:
"You will not silence me."
And me? I’m drained.
But how does a child who makes all this art
become an adult who asks a single question
that has worn me down?
Has humanity really evolved?
Has man changed?
Has the world begun to chant against killing,
to say "no" to murder?
Has it started to oppose those who starve a people -
Even if that people made mistakes?
Does the world cry out to stop bombs, missiles, and bullets?
Does it stand against the assassination of journalism,
Against the suffocation of the voice of truth?
Does it rise to support real freedom, truth, dignity?
Or is this little one babbling nonsense?
Is he setting a trap for my brain, exhausted by questions?
Has humanity really evolved?
Has the world learned from its sins?
From its silence during the Nazi Holocaust against the Jews?
Does it now scream at the top of its lungs,
Sacrificing its voice so that the tragedy won’t repeat?
Or was all of that an Illusion?
Is humanity exiled from conscience?
Or buried alive deep within?
Has man become used to killing it inside himself,
Again and again,
Until nothing remains but a faint echo?
Now I understand why this question disturbed me
And took over my thoughts and imagination.
Now I fully understand why Yusuf asked me
If there is any painkiller that can extinguish the ache of hunger.
I know full well that he didn’t mean hunger itself -
He meant the pain of human betrayal, and abandonment.
To be killed without anyone feeling you,
To have your humanity stolen,
Without a single reaction from those around you,
To have your voice muffled
While they pretend to be deaf.
Only now do I understand why this child asks all these questions… Perhaps this bitter reality is more than his innocent heart can bear.