Substack and Elon Musk have been beefing. Here’s a look at the back and forth between Twitter CEO and the blogging website.

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• Twitter users noticed that Substack links had been removed beginning Thursday evening.
• Musk claimed that the links were not "blocked", but that he believed Substack was unsafe.
• Musk's claims Saturday night were rebutted by Chris Best, Substack CEO.

Substack, a subscription-based blog website, and Twitter, a microblogging platform for microblogging has been at war over the past few days. Both platforms' CEOs have publicly responded to the controversy.

After the Twitter founder Elon Musk announced that Twitter had begun to suppress links to Substack, Chris Best, CEO of Substack, responded by calling the situation "very frustrating" as well as denouncing some of Musk's claims about the company.

Musk tweeted Saturday that Substack was trying "download a large portion of the Twitter databank," Musk claimed. This is to support Substack Notes, its newly announced Twitter competitor.

Twitter had previously removed links to Mastodon, a rival social media platform.

Insider discovered that the warning labels had vanished as of Saturday evening but that searches were still being directed, although they were no longer visible.

"We are glad to see that the suppression on Substack publications appears to have ended," Best and Substack cofounders Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi stated in a joint statement to Insider. This is a good move for writers who should be able to freely share their work. Substack and Twitter can coexist, we believe.

Substack Notes will be available soon. However, we expect it to become a new type of place in a subscription network and not replace existing social networks.

Here's a summary of the back and forth that led to Best’s latest response.

Wednesday: Substack Announces Notes

Substack, in a blog posting, announced Wednesday that it will be rolling out Notes, a feature similar to Twitter. Notes allows users to share short-form content and ideas that can be liked and commented upon, much like Twitter. These posts, just like Twitter would appear in a scrolling feed.

While Notes may look similar to other social media feeds like Facebook, the real difference lies in what you don’t see. Substack is a network that runs on paid subscriptions and not ads. Substack stated in a blog post that this changes everything.

It wasn't immediately clear if the Twitter war against Substack links and the announcement were related to Notes.

Thursday evening: Users start reporting that Substack Links are being blocked

Substack bloggers using Twitter to promote their work noticed that Thursday evening Substack hyperlinks were being suppressed. Twitter users who attempted to interact with posts containing Substack link would get an error message.

Twitter began redirecting search results for Substack through newsletters. If anyone clicked on a Substack hyperlink, they would be redirected to a page warning that it was unsafe. Insider had previously noticed this.

–philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) April 8, 2023

Substack also reported that some writers were having trouble embedding Tweets in their blog posts.

Best stated Friday that Substack was disappointed by the changes in a statement to The Verge

Best stated in a statement to The Verge that "this abrupt change is an reminder of why writers should have a model that puts their in charge, rewards great work with cash, and protects freedom of speech and press." Their livelihoods shouldn't be tied to platforms that don't allow them to control their relationships with their audience and where rules can be changed at will.

Friday: Musk's Twitter Files journalist says he is leaving

Matt Taibbi is a Substack blogger who was close to Musk and helped make public some of Twitter's internal content moderation decision through the "Twitter Files." He wrote on his Substack Blog that he would rather use Substack Notes to share his work than Twitter.

Taibbi has thousands of subscribers and charges $5 per month for access to his content. He also stated that the move would impact future "Twitter Files” reports.

Taibbi specifically mentioned Twitter's decision "to block" Substack connections on the platform. He said he inquired "what was happening" and was told to write articles on Twitter. Taibbi didn't clarify to whom he spoke.

A bot that monitors the Twitter accounts of CEOs from Big Tech announced that Musk had unfollowed Taibbi shortly after. This was confirmed by an insider.

Matt Binder, a journalist, noted Saturday evening that Taibbi tweets are no longer searchable via Twitter.

Insider asked Taibbi for comment but he did not respond immediately.

Taibbi stated that he was caught in a business dispute and made a statement to The New York Post.

Saturday: Musk clarifies that Twitter has never blocked Twitter notes

Musk stated in a tweet that Substack links had never been blocked by Twitter.

Twitter users quickly pointed out, via Twitter's Community Notes – a feature that allows contributors add context to posts – that Twitter had banned users from interfacing with tweets that contained Substack hyperlinks.

Musk also called Substack Notes "Twitter clone", and claimed Substack was trying to "download a large portion of Twitter's Twitter database to bootstrap" its new feature.

He claimed that Taibbi was employed by Substack. Best refuted this.

–Elon Musk (@elonmusk), April 8, 2023

Substack CEO claims that Musk's claims are false

Best replied to Musk's tweets in a Notes posting retrieved by The Verge. He said "none"

"Substack links were clearly severely blocked on Twitter. This is visible to anyone who uses the product," Best responded to Musk's claim that Substack links were not blocked on Twitter.

Best replied that Substack uses Twitter API to support the platform, and they believed they were compliant with the API's terms. However, they would be happy to address any concerns Musk may have.

Best also denied Taibbi was or is an employee of Substack.

"This is very frustrating. "It's one thing to mess up Substack, but it's quite another to treat authors this way," Best wrote.

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By: hgetahun@insider.com (Hannah Getahun)
Title: Elon Musk and Substack are beefing. Here’s a rundown of the back and forth between the Twitter CEO and the blogging site.
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/the-feud-between-elon-musks-twitter-and-substack-explained-2023-4
Published Date: Sun, 09 Apr 2023 05:40:01 +0000