Latest news with #NationalSocialist
Engadget
18 hours ago
- 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.
Gizmodo
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Gizmodo
Substack Sends Push Alert for Nazi Newsletter
Substack, the popular newsletter platform, recently sent out a push alert for a Nazi-themed newsletter. The publication in question, NatSocToday, describes itself as a 'National Socialist weekly newsletter featuring opinions and news important to the National Socialist and White Nationalist Community.' The newsletter's image header is a Nazi flag, and its latest post, as of Wednesday, was an article that includes the sentence: 'We demand the return of all territory currently occupied by jews and non-Whites in historically White homelands.' It does not appear to be a particularly popular blog, and currently has fewer than a thousand subscribers. User Mag, a newsletter on Substack started by Taylor Lorenz, first reported that a push alert for the publication 'was sent to an undisclosed number of users' phones on Monday.' Some of those people who reportedly received the push alert subsequently posted about it online, expressing confusion over 'why they were being prompted to subscribe to a Nazi blog,' the outlet writes. The story quotes a number of social media users who claim to have gotten the push alert. 'I had [a swastika] pop up as a notification, and I'm like, wtf is this? Why am I getting this?' one of them told the outlet. 'I was quite alarmed and blocked it.' Another user commented: 'I didn't realize there was such a prominent presence of the far right on the app.' User Mag also writes that users who clicked on NatSocToday's profile were given recommendations for other white-power-themed content. When reached for comment by Gizmodo, a spokesperson for Substack provided the following statement: 'We discovered an error that caused some people to receive push notifications they should never have received. In some cases, these notifications were extremely offensive or disturbing. 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.' The company does not appear to have commented directly on the content of the push alert to NatSocToday. We will update this post when we receive more details from the platform. In the past, Substack has been criticized for hosting far-right content. However, its willingness to publish a broad variety of viewpoints has also been a selling point. The company, which has mostly subsisted on a subscriber model, initially differentiated itself by largely ignoring content moderation. While it fielded criticism for this, it's come to be seen as an important venue for a scattered and changing media industry. In April, the site said it would offer legal support for any of its writers, should they be targeted by the Trump administration. It also recently raised $100 million in a funding round, with the New York Times reporting that the site is looking to expand by building out its social network while also potentially populating its site with ads.
Time of India
23-07-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Operation Valkyrie: 81st anniversary of plot to kill Hitler
Operation Valkyrie: 81st anniversary of plot to kill Hitler Eighty-one years ago, on July 20, 1944, at 12:42, a bomb went off in the conference room of the Wolf's Lair military headquarters in East Prussia, the easternmost province of the German Reich until the end of World War II. It was supposed to kill Adolf Hitler, and had been planted by German army officer Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg. The former ardent National Socialist now no longer saw any other option apart from murdering the dictator. "There is nothing left but to kill him," he had told his closest confidants a few days earlier. Stauffenberg was not only the assassin, but also the most important organizer of a large-scale coup attempt by people from conservative circles, which included high-ranking military, diplomatic and administrative officials. Shortly before the time bomb exploded on July 20, 1944, the officer had left the barracks. He flew in a military aircraft toward Berlin, believing the "Führer" was dead. In the German capital, "Operation Valkyrie" was underway. Originally devised as a Wehrmacht plan to suppress a possible uprising, the conspirators — who held key positions throughout the Nazi state apparatus — wanted to repurpose "Valkyrie" for their own coup. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like SRM Online MBA – Empowering Future Leaders SRM Online Enquire Now Undo Doomed to fail But Hitler suffered only minor injuries. The heavy oak table and the fact the barracks' windows were opened wide due to the hot weather had dampened the force of the explosion. Despite this, the chance for a putsch would not yet have been completely lost — if everyone involved had followed through with Operation Valkyrie unswervingly. But there were delays, breakdowns and insufficient planning. In addition, facing the enormous pressure of possibly being discovered, some of those involved remained passive or even changed sides. By the evening, the coup attempt had failed. Hitler went on the radio to broadcast to the people and spoke of the "providence" which saved him. Stauffenberg and several co-conspirators were arrested and executed by firing squad that night. Others were only discovered later. In total, about 200 resistance fighters were killed. Historian Wolfgang Benz believes the main reason for the failure was because "none of the famous military leaders" from that time, such as General Erwin Rommel, took part. "At least one of them needed to have been at the helm, so that then the people would say: 'Aha, Rommel also sees it that way, that Hitler is a criminal,'" he said. An enduring symbol Despite its failure, the resistance to Hitler on July 20, 1944, became a strong symbol. A few days before, Stauffenberg's co-conspirator Henning von Tresckow had concluded that success was no longer what mattered: The important thing was "that the German resistance movement had dared to risk its life in front of the world and in front of history." There were other resistance operations, such as the narrowly failed attempt by carpenter Georg Elser to kill Hitler using a homemade bomb in a Munich beer hall in 1939, or the leaflet campaign by a group of young friends known as the White Rose. They were later unjustly overshadowed by "the late, not to say belated, resistance of the conservative elites," as Wolfgang Benz judged the July 20, 1944 plot. 'The Holocaust did not interest them' The remembrance of Operation Valkyrie and the assassination attempt has shifted over time. For a long time after the war ended, its initiators were still regarded as traitors. Stauffenberg's wife, for example, was initially refused the pension received by widows. Later, the conspirators were officially designated as heroes: Streets, schools and barracks were named after them, and public buildings were decorated with flags every July 20. Swearing-in ceremonies for Bundeswehr armed forces recruits were held on the anniversary: The military of democratic Germany invoked the resistance fighters surrounding the former Wehrmacht officer Stauffenberg. But there was always criticism of those involved in the plot. Stauffenberg biographer Thomas Karlauf pointed out that the group first acted in the European summer of 1944, shortly after the Allies landed in Normandy. Following Germany's rapid military victories over Poland and France in 1940, Stauffenberg had enthused: "What a change in such a brief time!" He and the other men who participated in the military resistance took a "very, very long path to reformation," said Benz, adding: "The Holocaust did not interest them at all. " Faced with a looming military defeat, they wanted to try to "save what can be saved" for Germany by initiating a coup. Stauffenberg, not a democrat? Fellow historian Johannes Hürter is of the view that Stauffenberg was no democrat: He had an authoritarian form of government in mind for Germany if the assassination had been successful. Wolfgang Benz makes a slightly less harsh judgment: "Under any circumstances, Germany would have become a constitutional state again. But democracy as we know it, as it was established in the Basic Law constitution, was not the vision of the July 20 conspirators." Many Germans today think first of July 20, 1944, when it comes to the resistance against National Socialism. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg, as a result, has become its face. But there were many other heroes who rebelled against the terror of the Nazi regime: Jews, communists, people in the church, artists, partisans. There were certainly also people who resisted in silence and whose deeds, unlike those of the July 20 attackers, have since been forgotten.
Straits Times
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Sweden Democrats apologise for past Nazi links, antisemitism as election nears
FILE PHOTO: Jimmie Akesson, leader of the Sweden Democrats Party, attends a news conference at the Parliament press office regarding the formation of the government, in Stockholm, Sweden October 14, 2022. TT News Agency/Jonas Ekstromer via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. SWEDEN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN SWEDEN./File Photo STOCKHOLM - The anti-immigration Sweden Democrats apologised on Thursday for the party's past Nazi links and antisemitism, part of efforts to present a more moderate, mainstream image to voters ahead of a national election next year. The Sweden Democrats were presenting the results of a specially commissioned study that found Nazi and antisemitic views to have been common at party functions and in its printed materials in the 1980s and 1990s. "That there have been clear expressions of antisemitism and support for National Socialist ideas in my party's history I think is disgusting and reprehensible," Mattias Karlsson, a member of parliament often described as the party's chief ideologist, told a news conference. "I would like to reiterate the party's apology, above all to Swedish citizens of Jewish descent who may have felt a strong sense of insecurity and fear for good reasons." The commissioning of the study sought to acknowledge and break with a past that has long hindered its cooperation with Sweden's mainstream political parties. The Sweden Democrats hope to join a future coalition government after the 2026 election. The party first entered parliament in 2010 and currently supports Sweden's governing right-wing coalition government but has no members in the cabinet. Tony Gustafsson, the historian hired by the party to write the book, said the party had emerged in the 1980s out of neo-Nazi and white supremacist organizations and that it had continued to cooperate with them into the 1990s. "The collaboration seems to have involved using these groups to help distribute election materials," Gustafsson said, adding there were strong indications that one such group, the "White Aryan Resistance", had served as security guards at party gatherings. Gustafsson said there had been a clear connection to Nazism until 1995, the year that current party leader Jimmie Akesson joined the Sweden Democrats, but that the Sweden Democrats had begun distancing itself from such links thereafter. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
Epoch Times
06-06-2025
- Epoch Times
‘The Last Twins': Mengele's Twisted Studies
NR | 1h 21m | Documentary | 2025 Dr. Josef Mengele, the notorious 'Angel of Death,' was one of the worst National Socialist war criminals who escaped justice after World War II. Thanks to the courage of Erno 'Zvi' Spiegel, many of the young twins, who served as Mengele's unwilling research subjects, survived the Auschwitz concentration camp and could have duly testified against their tormentor had he been captured.
