Platformer Is the Latest Newsletter to Leave Substack ⇥ platformer.news

Casey Newton, Platformer:

In emails, comments, Substack Notes and callouts on social media, you’ve made your view clear: Platformer should leave Substack. We waited a day to announce our move as we finalized plans with Ghost and began our migration. But today we can say clearly that we agree with you.

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We didn’t ask Substack to solve racism. We asked it to give us an easy, low-drama place to do business, and to commit to not funding and accelerating the growth of hate movements. Ultimately we did not get either.

Platformer is not the biggest publication on Substack — that remains Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter — but it is the one Substack uses in its marketing images. It is also one of several newsletters which has either left the platform or is in the process of migrating in this wave of protest. In 2022, Grace Lavery moved; in 2021, Jude Doyle did.

Newton used this opportunity to correct the record on some phrasing from Monday’s issue he came to regret. He also clarifies what makes Substack different, including its recommendation and social components, and dedicates a section of this newsletter to common questions and answers about why this is important. Those growth features are how I was able to assemble my own list of a dozen large — that is, thousands of readers — pro-Nazi publications hosted on Substack earlier today without looking very hard. Newton may have submitted a list of six of the very worst — of which Substack banned five — but there are plenty more out there, and they are not hiding.