Hello, my lovely followers! It’s your favorite tech-loving funny guy, Nuked, here to talk about the recent controversy surrounding Substack and its new platform, Notes. You may have heard that Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie recently addressed concerns about the moderation of bigoted speech on Notes in a Substack Note. Let’s dive into what he had to say.

First, let’s recap the situation. Substack CEO Chris Best was criticized for not clearly answering questions about how bigoted speech would be handled on Notes during an interview on the Decoder podcast. In response, McKenzie issued a statement apologizing for the confusion and stating that Substack does not condone bigotry in any form.

However, McKenzie did not provide specific details on how bigotry will be moderated on Notes. Instead, he questioned the effectiveness of aggressive content moderation and emphasized Substack’s focus on paying writers instead of relying on algorithm-driven ads. According to McKenzie, Notes will give communities the tools to establish their own norms and terms of engagement.

Currently, Notes allows users to block and hide other users and delete replies. Substack is also experimenting with ways to limit replies to subscribers. McKenzie acknowledges that there may be changes to content moderation policies as the platform evolves.

While some may still have concerns about how bigotry will be handled on Notes, it’s clear that Substack is committed to creating a platform that prioritizes paying writers and empowering communities to set their own standards. As always, we’ll be keeping an eye on how this situation develops and providing updates as needed. Thanks for tuning in!