April 10, 2023
After Substack launched Notes that allows users to send short, Twitter-like posts to their followers, Twitter has blocked any post containing the word “Substack,” in response, and even blocked the word “Substack” from being searched.
This move by Twitter has infuriated Substack users, who are mostly independent small business owners that depend on Substack as an enterprise software provider. Many have responded by saying they will leave Twitter and use Substack Notes instead.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and operator of Twitter, defended the decision by claiming that Substack was “trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone,” an accusation that Substack CEO Chris Best denies. Best says that Substack has been using the Twitter API for years and thinks they are in compliance with the terms of service.
In a post on Substack Notes, Best expressed his frustration with the situation, noting that Substack writers are actually customers of his enterprise software product, so messing with Substack links has more impact on individual small business owners than it does on the platform company. He also implied that Twitter never told Substack about any alleged violation.
It’s worth noting that Andreesen Horowitz is an investor in both Substack and neo-Twitter, which has led to some speculation about the motives behind Twitter’s actions.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheVerge.
