By Kevin Barrett, for American Free Press, posted here for my paid subscribers
On April 3 the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism published an attack on the popular email newsletter platform Substack. Headlined “Antisemitism, False Information and Hate Speech Find a Home on Substack,” the article charged that “extremists and conspiracy theorists...routinely use the site to profit from spreading antisemitism, misinformation, disinformation and hate speech.” Substack’s lenient moderation policies, the ADL asserts, “provide fertile ground for the spread of hateful rhetoric and false information – a known catalyst for offline harm and violence.” As an example of offline harm and violence caused by online speech, the ADL cites “the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.”
The ADL says its attention was drawn to Substack because the platform is becoming more popular and because “several problematic authors are popular enough to have earned a ‘bestseller’ ranking on the platform.” Full disclosure: I am one of those “problematic” bestselling authors. You can verify that by going to KevinBarrett.Substack.com, where you can find my response to what the ADL said about me in my article “ADL Takes Aim at my Substack.”
What’s surprising is not that the ADL is coming after Substack, but that it has taken them this long. Substack was created expressly as a dedicated free speech platform and has repeatedly doubled down on that mission statement.