An Open Letter to Substack
-For the Uncensored!
Yesterday, on the morning of February 24, 2022, I got up like every morning. Drafted an article, and couldn’t wait to publish. Only I opened my Substack page to find that my page was disabled because it was flagged as spam. I don’t even eat spam, but whatever.
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All jokes aside this was dangerous and really didn’t help me want to write anymore articles. So, I messages Substack with the following words:
“I woke up in the morning of February 23rd, 2002 to find out that my page has been disabled due to violating the terms of service. I haven't received an email in regard to this claim of "offense" and to what article is being removed or cause for disabling my page. I have read the terms of service plus no details have been sent to me regarding this disciplinary action explains what offense I have committed. Please send any documentation that can help clarify the issue. Otherwise, I believe I am working in good faith with the first Amendment as my guiding principle of expression. I hope we can resolve this or get further clarification.”
As I always say, “You can’t worry about something until it’s there.” So, sending those words was a rather grown up thing to do. This was business and I had to handle my business in a professional manner. Losing my shit then wouldn’t have helped me resolve the situation. But what I saw hurt, a lot. Publishing means a lot to me. Expression is the sole benefit of living in a democracy. A democracy needs proof of documentation, and my problem is that I deserve my day to explain or even state my case. This doesn’t happen on other social media platforms as of 2022. I was glad to do it, because nothing about this seemed fair. Only the last time I checked, the First Amendment shouldn’t have to come with a TOS (Term of Service), right?
But a representative, Tex, from Substack did respond a half an hour, with “It appears that one of our platform safety detection mechanisms erroneously flagged your publication as spam. I've reactivated your account so you should be able to start publishing again immediately. I apologize for the inconvenience.”
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If they wanted to swat me for it, they could have swatted me a long time ago. So, I don’t think it was because of what I was writing. But as I am opening up my own merchandise store, and copied the link in my “Open Letter to Hollywood” that’s when the strike happened. I think putting the link in my Substack might have caused the bots to strike my page, but in all fairness, they aren’t telling me what or why this was done in the first place.
This is alarming because Substack takes freedom of speech seriously, and I think they aren’t saying anything because lawsuits could happen. I get it. I know. If it persists, then something must be done. I don’t want to sue Substack, at all. I like the page and I like the way so many people can come and lay down their words and become word slingers, sell their art. But the conditions of being marked as spam marks an uncomfortable position for me.
To reiterate, the situation is resolved and I am here, so I’m purposefully not trying to get the ire of Substack. They did answer me in a prompt way, and they didn’t belabor the point, but nor did they explain the reasoning that the system flagged my page as “spam.”
I will not pursue any lawsuits, if this doesn’t happen again. I don’t want to leave Substack, but I have left other sites under far less conditions. There are options, of course, but the decision in turning tail now isn’t in my playbook. The Constitution and Freedom of Speech must be held true over any malintent moderators, bots, who are quietly angry at my writing. And I would point out that this might be more the fault of algorithms. But haters work in mysterious ways. And I don’t ultimately think they have to show their face to prove their point, either.
Nor do I want Substack cancelled, because that’s not an answer to world. Lawsuits are preferable over cancellation.
The conspicuous reasoning is dubious, but for now, I want an open discussion. Are Allgorithms going to be the death of free speech? Has it already happened? Do we have more to fear from bots than people? But Substack, in my opinion, doesn’t want to be an editor. I get it. They have been good to me, so far. So, these aren’t shots. I do accept their apology, but don’t test my patience.
-Louis Bruno is the author of more than 19 books, including, The Michael Project, The Michael Project: Book 2: The Lost Children of Eve, Thy Kingdom Come, The Disintegrating Bloodline (and the original text re-released in 2019), Apocalypse Soldier, The Data Chase, Selection: The First Book of the Life and Death Saga, and Blinking Eyes: The Second Book of the Life and Death Saga, Hierarchy of Dwindling Sheep, The City of Sand, To the Moon and Back, The Villain Lives and The Villain Lives: The Divided Pinpoint, Come Home, Young One. He has a Bachelor of Arts in English from University of Phoenix. His books can be found on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Lulu. He can be found on Gab, https://gab.com/thereallouistbruno, Minds https://www.minds.com/lbruno8063/. Instagram @lbrruno8063 and @louisbrunoofficialbook. Our Freedom Book https://www.ourfreedombook.com/thereallouistbruno17. He has written for the Intellectual Conservative and Ephemere. His next series, City of Sand is out now:https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/louis-bruno/city-of-sand/hardcover/product-rke9jz.html?page=1&pageSize=4. Also, if you can’t subscribe so that you can get members only content, please be sure to share the articles, as well. If you do Subscribe and pay, as well so you can get my articles in your inbox every time, and access to the paid articles that some readers won’t get to see. Every little bit helps in the war against Big Tech. Thanks for reading.
"platform safety detection mechanisms" isn't a thing that should exist. If it's worth detecting for safety then it's worth having it done in person. Having Auto-Gestapo going around literally deplatforming buzzwords is antithetical to the idea of Free speech no matter how you slice it.