This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating.
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This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
@ben might be the first time it's been documented in a national newspaper though
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@ben substack posters when you tell them they explicitly support nazis: "ohh but the chicken is so good tho"
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This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
@ben Not just nazis but supports/inflates member counts, perhaps even funnels money to crunchy mom influencer accounts like Jessica Reed Kraus who worked through out 2034 to get Trump elected. Background on this is insidious. She's just a tool but what mechanisms behind the scenes enabled her at substack?
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@ben might be the first time it's been documented in a national newspaper though
@mewsleah That’s probably true!
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@ben I don't have a fricking clue why people who claim to be all in for democracy and antifascism *choose* to put their information on Substack. I also don't understand why people need it proven--repeatedly--that Substack is a Nazi platform that has gotten *more* Nazi accounts since it was publicized that they hosted them. But here we are!
Good luck with the monetization, kids. (Spoiler: the scam has an expiration date, like all of the others.)
@ben @dnkboston
One person who is an independent reporter didn't know anything about this, when I left a comment saying I was going to need to unsubscribe. -
This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
@molly0xfff wrote this “How I Set Up on Ghost” guide: https://www.citationneeded.news/substack-to-self-hosted-ghost/
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@ben @dnkboston
One person who is an independent reporter didn't know anything about this, when I left a comment saying I was going to need to unsubscribe.@notyourfanboy That's incredible to me. It's pretty well-publicized, and isn't a journalist supposed to be up on the latest news? @ben
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For people who want alternatives, Ghost is a Substack-style platform that doesn't host Nazis. It's free and open source, so you can self-host if you prefer or use Ghost's own hosting service.
Ghost also has Fediverse compatibility so people can follow your Ghost blog or newsletter directly from Mastodon etc. More info at https://fedi.tips/ghost-blogs-and-newsletters-on-the-fediverse/
@FediThing @ben ghost isn’t free as far as I see?
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@FediThing ah, ok. That isn’t clear on the website. Makes sense. @ben
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@Jorsh Ding ding ding ding ding @notyourfanboy @ben
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@FediThing @ben I think I tried it on unohost. setting it up is a bit of a strugle, it seems worth it however.
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@notyourfanboy That's incredible to me. It's pretty well-publicized, and isn't a journalist supposed to be up on the latest news? @ben
@ben @dnkboston
Let me rephrase that.A journalist, who I'm sure doesn't make a living at it, who covers injustice in prisons in their State, who posts once or twice a month to their substack account hadn't heard about the platform hosting Nazis.
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This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
@ben I wonder what @MikeElgan thinks. He's still so bullish on Substack.
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This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
@ben This is the main reason why I don't pay for more subscriptions to Journalists that I want to support! They're on Substack. @MikeElgan is one of them. If he moved from Substack to Ghost, Beehiiv, I'd sub right away.
Hear that Mike!
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@FediThing @miekeroth @ben
As I always note when this comes up, @JuliusGoat made the switch to ghost from substack and wrote about it here -
@ben @dnkboston
Let me rephrase that.A journalist, who I'm sure doesn't make a living at it, who covers injustice in prisons in their State, who posts once or twice a month to their substack account hadn't heard about the platform hosting Nazis.
@notyourfanboy But still.
I always assume people should know what I do because I'm really not *that* well-informed. Nothing I know is a secret, I have no access to insider information on anything. So if I know about it, a journalist should, too. I feel comfortable saying that.
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This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
@ben Substack also, when Musk had just bought Twitter, posted that "anyone who has a problem with Musk's fight for free speech" need not apply for a job with them. They've made it quite clear where they stand.
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This isn’t new news as such, but people keep being surprised by it, so it’s worth repeating. Substack hosts, profits from, and promotes explicitly Nazi content, and if you are adding value to that network, you are helping them to do so. https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters
@ben Oh it’s very well documented. I’ve catalog most of them here, but I’ve got many more to add https://sightlessscribbles.com/posts/20250425/
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For people who want alternatives, Ghost is a Substack-style platform that doesn't host Nazis. It's free and open source, so you can self-host if you prefer or use Ghost's own hosting service.
Ghost also has Fediverse compatibility so people can follow your Ghost blog or newsletter directly from Mastodon etc. More info at https://fedi.tips/ghost-blogs-and-newsletters-on-the-fediverse/
@FediThing @ben WordPress is much easier, and there are thousands of people who can help you with it, plus thousands of themes.
