On leaving Substack

This is a version of an article being published on Substack, in the interest of raising awareness.

There are some really lovely people whom I have met through the Substack platform, so this has not been an easy decision. Leaving is particularly difficult as there are several writers on Substack that I support with paid subscriptions, whom I feel are particularly worthy of support.

People often respond when someone leaves a platform that you don't need to announce your departure, but I feel that I want to explain my reasons.

The decision is mainly based on discovering that the highly controversial "influencer" Andrew Tate is now sharing this platform. I find it extraordinary that Substack allows him to be allowed an account given his persistent spouting of misogyny and hate speech, and general conduct, which has resulted in him being charged with 10 criminal charges in the UK, including rape, human trafficking, actual bodily harm, and controlling prostitution for gain. Is this really someone you want to share a platform with?

Initially, I assumed that Substack was not aware that he had opened an account, but that does not appear to be the case. Due to his (worryingly) large following, Tate appears in the "Bestsellers" list to the right of our screens, sometimes at the top.

There is the point, that many have made, that he can simply be blocked, but it is hard to ignore the fact that he is now a major presence on the platform, and that many visitors to Substack will now be his followers.

I came to Substack as a "refugee" from Medium, after many writers found our earnings collapse on that platform in January 2025. At that time, I was aware of concerns by some commentators about Nazi content on Substack, but my personal experience over the past year has been that it is not generally found, unless one goes looking for it, though of course, others will have had a different experience.

Substack's founders have defended the presence of this Nazi content on the grounds of "free speech" and described a learning process, as if unsure whether they should ban it. From this, I took it that they are reviewing whether it should be allowed to remain. Apparently not, and its ongoing existence has always made me very uncomfortable comfortable: its presence on the site must be incredibly insulting and intimidating for the groups that suffered the worst from the horrors of World War Two.

It is important to learn lessons from history, particularly when that history involves the murder of millions of people in the Holocaust, and death of further millions during the course of World War Two, including service people and civilians.

To allow Nazi content on Substack suggests to me that the owners have been unable to take on board those lessons. Of course, free speech is important, but there have to be limits to prevent harm to vulnerable or minority groups and protect safety. The often-given example is that it is not permitted to shout out "Fire" in a theatre (unless of course, there is a fire!).

Similarly, most people agree that extreme obscenity or hate speech should not be permitted. There are, however extreme libertarian views along the lines of "anything goes", and that seems close to the position being taken by the owners of Substack.

Coming back to the subject of Andrew Tate, for me, just blocking him is not sufficient. I don't want my name or publication on the same platform. As the father of two daughters, I find his attitude to women abhorrent, and the ideology he spouts has had a chilling and detrimental impact on millions of people, as sadly, he has succeeded in finding a large and receptive audience for his views.

So to conclude, I have met some really lovely and admirable people on Substack. Apologies to those I have been subscribing to, but since a proportion of that subscription goes to the owners of a platform with views I cannot support, just as I avoid Twitter/X and Amazon, or indeed flying, on ethical grounds, I will be leaving Substack at the end of April if Tate is still on the platform on that date.