27 Comments
User's avatar
Giles Brennand's avatar

What are the criteria for deciding which posts, chats, streams will be blocked? Who will decide? Will authors be informed that their material has been flagged/blocked? Will they be informed why? If blocking is due to complaints, will the complainants be named? Will authors have the right to respond? Who will make the decision? Will there be a right to appeal? Authors need answers to all of those questions. Will authors have the reciprocal right to block groups of readers from seeing their material?

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The Underdog's avatar

Substack provides this one-way blurb which doesn't answer any of your questions:

https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/42995419870100-Substack-18-Content-policy

They don't offer any position to let authors query. They just go 'here's the rules, maybe shill them to your readership?'.

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mejbcart's avatar

Thanks for this link!

Many of the topics could be touched in posts with warnings about them, so that also supposed to be censored? What's going to be left? Banal stuff which nobody reads?

Well, substack is a COM_PANY, so it can do what it wants to do, but the problem is, it is OUR INPUT!!!!

There is a CENSORSHIP in regard to SCIENCE, right here on substack, anything with covid GENE 'therapies' is no, no.... Have been warned about it in 2022...

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consuelo's avatar

Diabolical. Totally insincere. This world is overflowing with evil and corruption already and substack pretends we need them to protect our poor widdle ears and eyes.

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Hat Bailey's avatar

You got that right Consuelo!

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

The article was on The Expose yesterday with very few comments at the time. I found it weird too. But remember Assange. How weird was that, an Australian citizen being bashed by a foreign govt. We see the play but we don't know what is going on. I am appalled that Substack bent, but we don't know the consequences if they did not consent to the pressure. Being banned altogether?

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The Underdog's avatar

The UK doesn't have jurisdiction within the US, so the question becomes, banned from what?

The UK isn't the sole controller of the Internet, and does not own it.

If you accept this violation on American sovereignty, then you have to accept the UK government controls American's speech. Absurd!

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

That is what I thought too, but you don't know who holds the wires... just like we don't know who directs our governments. Or do we?

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The Underdog's avatar

Oh we do, and it'll depend on how much tolerance the public will take on the inconveniences and invasions of their personal space. If they revolt: if, given how docile they have been - remains to be seen.

I am not content with the malleable spineless compliance of Substack hiding my (and others) work from viewership.

They have an email for bending the knee to the government:

osa@substackinc.com

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

Sent !

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Metta's avatar

Did you both also know that your Substack content is now being used for AI training by default ~ meaning without your prior consent?

2 very bad decisions, IMHO.

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DefCon-Dan's avatar

There is or was a lawsuit against OpenAI for stealing copyrighted content for their AI training from various newspapers.

Probably everything on the internet is being scraped for AI training?

Except for the few AI engines that "supposedly" don't have the ability to search the internet.

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Metta's avatar
Dec 6Edited

There are many such lawsuits ~ but IMHO this in no way justifies Substack's decision make their own AI training on writers' content opt OUT, instead of opt IN.

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Jane A's avatar

Thank you for this information and email - sent out

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The Icarian's avatar

Substack Bends The Knee

Are you surprised?

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Jayro's avatar

Path to censorship keeps widening.

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Metta's avatar

As we've already seen, the censorship is wide enough to cover the entire global. The only question now is how many cracks are left in the censorship armor.

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Chevrus's avatar

Thanks for confirming the glaringly obvious. Best of luck Britzies.

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The Underdog's avatar

You understand the censorship applies to American authors also, right?

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Chevrus's avatar

Nope…didnt read the fine print…I guess we will be speaking in code then!

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The Underdog's avatar

I'm already seeing people using Twitter-esque censorship of their posts by asterisking common words like "kill" and "genocide".

Mark Twain quote comes to mind: 'Censorship is like banning steak because a baby can't chew it'.

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Chevrus's avatar

Yeah …it feels like the noose is tightening because they simply cannot stuff the genie back in the bottle. I laugh at them, and will run circles around them, but that does not make it acceptable to muzzle “free speech”

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The Underdog's avatar

Substack are particularly damning because their main stint was how they'd be a more open platform. Instead I see them eagerly complying with nations' rules they're not even under the jurisdiction of.

Gab fell down the same path, banning British users entirely. If Substack has the same rules as X/Twitter, I see zero benefit to writing here. You can't build a future on quicksand. I'm sure the child murderers in the UK government are celebrating; amazing how the OSA 18+ rules don't apply to any of the weapons they ship out to kill children.

Killing them is fine, according to the UK government; it is protesting the killing that children shouldn't be allowed to see. If Substack endorses this shit I'm out.

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Chevrus's avatar

Yeah it’s a whacky world width a tiny sliver of the population running shit with sociopathic narcissism on full display….I guess the thinkers and doers will just have to invent their way out of it.

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Metta's avatar

I'm already out. 2 strikes was enough for me.

> https://thedailybeagle.substack.com/p/substack-bends-the-knee/comment/184669812

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Dr Maria D Olivier🇿🇦's avatar

Shocking!

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Hat Bailey's avatar

Oh shoot! When I saw the subject line I thought, "Oh good, they have bent the knee to the content providers on substack about some of their more questionable problems, foolish me!

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