Twitter ends Substack newsletter censorship, for now

Twitter chief Elon Musk denied that the newsletter creation platform Substack was blocked on Twitter, but users were being warned about clicking on Substack links

April 11, 2023 12:05 pm | Updated 01:17 pm IST

File photo of the Twitter logo

File photo of the Twitter logo | Photo Credit: AP

Days after Twitter restricted users from engaging with Substack links, the platform has stopped warning users against clicking the newsletter links, and is no longer censoring searches for the term ‘Substack’.

Over the weekend, Mr. Musk claimed that Substack was trying to download a large part of the Twitter database for its own Twitter “clone.” However, Substack CEO Chris Best denied this accusation and called the situation “very frustrating,” as per tech outlet The Verge.

Users who earlier clicked on Substack newsletter links were warned that the site may be unsafe. Searching the word ‘Substack’ only delivered results for the term ‘newsletter’ and several users were unable to like or retweet posts that contained Substack links.

The digital publication platform that lets account holders create either free or paid digital newsletters criticised the censorship and said it was looking into the situation.

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Substack is working on a feature called ‘Notes’ to let users post short-form content that looks like tweets. This may have been the “clone” Mr. Musk was referring to.

He agreed with a user who said Substack was trying to compete with Twitter and added that it was doing so “by a massive theft of Twitter data.”

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