Twitter Situation Is 'Very Frustrating' For Substack CEO, Elon Musk

The popular subscription newsletter platform Substack, which has been around for a long time, has recently launched Notes, which is similar to a Twitter-like feature in its app, which can be downloaded from the App Store.

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There have been some actions taken by Twitter, a world-historically famous clown car owned by Elon Musk, as a response. They blocked the ability for users to like or retweet any posts containing the word “Substack”, displayed a warning message when users clicked on the links to Substack, and finally blocked even the search engine from searching for the word Substack. Many Substack users have responded to this by saying they are going to leave Twitter and switch to Substack Notes, a small business software provider that is largely used by independent small business owners. (There is more, but it is a combination platter of hilarious and tiresome since some of the personalities involved are so different. Just click the links.)

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It's kind of funny that Musk attempted to explain his decision in a reply this week by claiming that Substack was “trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database in order to bootstrap their Twitter clone” in his reply. The problem here is that it is a pretty huge claim to make without any evidence, but just imagine if you started some sort of Twitter competitor and prepopulated it with the trash of Twitter.

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There is, however, a post from Substack CEO Chris Best who responded to Elon with Substack Notes, which is what Elon has been asking for. Most of the new features are still in beta, so the URL is not yet available, but Chris provided us with a screenshot so people can use it to refer to.

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Apparently, Twitter didn't inform Substack that it was in violation of their terms of service, so they must not have thought they were in compliance with them. The implication is that Twitter did not inform Substack about any alleged violation of its terms of service. As Best explains, the whole situation is “very frustrating,” and he also acknowledges that Substack's writers are customers of his enterprise software product; messing with Substack links can have a much greater impact on individuals than it does on the company.

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There is something to be said here: Andreesen Horowitz has invested both in Substack and neo-Twitter, so I am happy to see that both projects are moving well. The phrase "free speech," "Twitter," and "Elon Musk" probably will kick off your Saturday night off right in whatever way you feel like. I trust you. Have a blast.