Latest news with #HeatherCoxRichardson
Engadget
30-07-2025
- Politics
- Engadget
Substack accidentally sent push alerts promoting a Nazi publication
It was easy to view Substack's 2023 Nazi controversy as a kicked can that could turn up again. Well, white supremacist content led to another headache for the company this week. User Mag reported on Tuesday that the app sent a push alert to some users promoting a Nazi newsletter. The company told Engadget the notification was an "extremely offensive and disturbing" error. The Substack newsletter in question describes itself as "a National Socialist weekly newsletter." It includes "opinions and news important to the National Socialist and White Nationalist Community." The far-right blog has a mere 757 subscribers. (That's a drop in the ocean compared to, say, Heather Cox Richardson's 2.6 million, George Saunders' 312,000 and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's 236,000.) Given the newsletter's offensive content and relatively paltry audience, this wouldn't seem like something to promote. According to the company, it didn't mean to. "We discovered an error that caused some people to receive push notifications they should never have received," a Substack spokesperson told Engadget. "In some cases, these notifications were extremely offensive or disturbing," the statement continued. "This was a serious error, and we apologize for the distress it caused. We have taken the relevant system offline, diagnosed the issue and are making changes to ensure it doesn't happen again." Engadget asked Substack for extra details or context about how the accident happened. It didn't have further comment at the time of publication. We'll update this story if we find out more. The newsletter in question (Substack) User Mag reports that those who clicked on the Nazi blog's profile received recommendations for a similar one. That one had a larger audience of 8,600 subscribers. One reason social users were quick to pounce on the latest incident: It provides a symbolic callback to Substack's 2023 Nazi shitstorm. That's when The Atlantic dug up "scores" of white-supremacist, neo-Confederate and Nazi newsletters on the platform. Some were monetized. Substack's policy is one of anti-censorship. "I just want to make it clear that we don't like Nazis either — we wish no one held those views," Substack cofounder Hamish McKenzie wrote in December 2023. "But some people do hold those and other extreme views. Given that, we don't think that censorship (including through demonetizing publications) makes the problem go away — in fact, it makes it worse." After weeks of negative press coverage and prominent authors leaving the platform, Substack relented… sort of. On one hand, the company removed "some" pro-Nazi publications. However, it did so without changing its policies. Instead, it said five publications violated its existing content guidelines. Specifically, they broke rules prohibiting "incitements to violence based on protected classes." Some critics didn't believe that was enough. The Platformer 's Casey Newton, a prominent voice who left Substack during the episode, thought the company needed to take more responsibility. "Every platform hosts its share of racists, white nationalists and other noxious personalities," Newton wrote in early 2024. "In some very real sense, there is no escaping them online. But there ought to be ways to see them less; to recommend them less; to fund them less. Other platforms have realized this as they've grown up. Here's hoping Substack does the same." Substack has since found its footing as a haven for independent content creators. Numerous journalists looking to build an audience sans traditional media have flocked to it. (Among others, that list includes Tina Brown, Jim Acosta, Terry Moran and Jennifer Rubin.) In recent years, Substack has added a Twitter-like social feature, live video and TikTok-esque vertical video. The company said it had its biggest week during the 2024 presidential election with an 82 percent boost in paid subscriptions. It recently raised $100 million in funding.
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Substack
Substack app. Credit - Gabby Jones—Bloomberg/Getty Images In an era when readers gobble up free content served by algorithms, Substack has defied gravity by securing 5 million customers who pay to read original writing. Though the company remains unprofitable, its platform—designed to handle 'everything but the hard part: the writing itself'—has enabled thousands of writers to earn money independent of major media organizations through paid subscriptions to newsletters and other content. It's drawn scores of writers—including standouts like Heather Cox Richardson, Nate Silver, Mehdi Hasan, and economist Paul Krugman—with some earning millions of dollars via the platform. In January, it announced $20 million in guarantees to help creators launch subscriptions. 'People are hungry for media relationships with the writers and creators they really trust,' says co-founder Hamish McKenzie. 'There's a recognition that the kinds of media experiences you get from the doom scroll feeds corrode the soul and lessen the quality of the life you have.' Contact us at letters@
Yahoo
26-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Substack
Substack app. Credit - Gabby Jones—Bloomberg/Getty Images In an era when readers gobble up free content served by algorithms, Substack has defied gravity by securing 5 million customers who pay to read original writing. Though the company remains unprofitable, its platform—designed to handle 'everything but the hard part: the writing itself'—has enabled thousands of writers to earn money independent of major media organizations through paid subscriptions to newsletters and other content. It's drawn scores of writers—including standouts like Heather Cox Richardson, Nate Silver, Mehdi Hasan, and economist Paul Krugman—with some earning millions of dollars via the platform. In January, it announced $20 million in guarantees to help creators launch subscriptions. 'People are hungry for media relationships with the writers and creators they really trust,' says co-founder Hamish McKenzie. 'There's a recognition that the kinds of media experiences you get from the doom scroll feeds corrode the soul and lessen the quality of the life you have.' Contact us at letters@
Telegraph
18-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Obama: The US is dangerously close to becoming an autocracy
Barack Obama has warned America is 'dangerously close' to slipping into an autocracy. The former president issued a thinly veiled rebuke of Donald Trump over the apparent erosion of the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary and the right to protest. Addressing a charity event in Connecticut on Tuesday, Mr Obama said that America was close to going 'over the cliff' when it comes to undermining democratic norms. The former president said: 'If you follow regularly what is said by those who are in charge of the federal government right now, there is a weak commitment to what we understood — and not just my generation, at least since World War II — our understanding of how a liberal democracy is supposed to work.' Speaking alongside Heather Cox Richardson, an anti-Trump writer and historian, Mr Obama stressed that democracy requires government workers and the Justice Department to uphold the US constitution. 'It requires them to take that oath seriously, and when that isn't happening, we start drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy,' he said. 'It is consistent with autocracies. It is consistent with Hungary under Orban.' He continued: 'We're not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalising behavior like that. And we need people both outside government and inside government saying, 'Let's not go over that cliff because it's hard to recover.'' His comments come after Mr Trump's immigration crackdown sparked a wave of protests across the country, and after several elected Democratic officials were detained by federal agents. It is the second time in recent months Mr Obama has spoken out publicly against the policies of the Trump administration. In March, the former president said he was 'deeply concerned' by the government's targeting of universities and law firms. 'That kind of behaviour is contrary to the basic compact we have as Americans,' he said. In his talk at the Connecticut Forum, Mr Obama also took aim at liberals for being 'comfortable in their righteousness' during his presidency, and warned that they now face having their values tested. 'You could be as progressive and socially conscious as you wanted and you did not have to pay a price,' he said. 'You could still make a lot of money. You could still hang out in Aspen and Milan and travel and have a house in the Hamptons and still think of yourself as a progressive. 'We now have a situation in which all of us are going to be tested in some way, and we are going to have to decide what our commitments will be. 'Now things are a little different. You might lose some of your donors if you're a university and if you're a law firm, your billings might drop a little bit, which means you cannot remodel that kitchen in your house in the Hamptons this summer.'
New York Times
17-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Obama Steps Back Into Public Eye at a Stormy Political Moment
Former President Barack Obama will gingerly step into the public fray on Tuesday night, after weeks of quiet grumbling from some demoralized Democrats for what they say is his silence in the face of a frontal assault on liberal America by the Trump administration. Mr. Obama will participate in a discussion in Hartford, Conn., with Heather Cox Richardson, a popular liberal writer and historian, at a moment of deep uncertainty and volatility for his party, the country and the world. Domestically over the past week, a Democratic senator was forced to the ground and handcuffed after trying to ask a question of a cabinet secretary at a news conference; a Democratic governor was threatened with arrest by President Trump and with being 'tarred and feathered' by the House speaker; and a Democratic state lawmaker in Minnesota and her husband were assassinated in shootings that wounded another Democratic legislator and his wife. Overseas, speculation has grown that Mr. Trump could order the United States to openly enter the escalating war between Israel and Iran by bombing a key Iranian nuclear facility. It remains unclear whether Mr. Obama will issue a strong statement on Tuesday evening about any of the violence and chaos of recent days. He has largely shied away from offering a running commentary on politics or on Mr. Trump, declining to take a role as a leader of the opposition. Some Democratic officials and voters have grumbled about his reticence, wanting him to offer more vocal and frequent criticism. Mr. Obama will be paid for his appearance in Hartford, at the Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts. Like many former officials, he has participated in a series of similar paid conversations at universities, civil society groups and other public forums over the years. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
