The CEOs of both platforms have publicly reacted to the debate, which has been growing between Twitter and the subscription-based blogging website Substack over the last few days. After learning that links to Substack were being removed from Twitter, the company’s CEO, Chris Best, wrote to Twitter founder Elon Musk, declaring the situation “extremely irritating” and refuting several of Musk’s statements about the business.
According to one of these allegations, Substack attempted to “download a significant piece of the Twitter database” in order to assist its recently unveiled Twitter rival, Substack Notes, Musk said on Twitter on Saturday.
In December, Twitter already blocked links to the rival social networking site Mastodon. The warning labels were gone as of Saturday night, but queries were still being rerouted, Insider discovered.
The co-founders of Best and Substack, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi, expressed their happiness to Insider in a joint statement, saying, “We’re delighted to learn that the restriction of Substack publishes on Twitter appears to be gone.” “Writers should have the right to freely distribute their work, thus this is the proper course of action. We think that Twitter and Substack can keep functioning side by side and benefit from one another.
Substack Notes will be released shortly, but we anticipate it to be a unique space within a membership network rather than a takeover of already popular social networks.
Wednesday: Notes are announced by Substack
Substack published a blog post on Wednesday announcing the launch of Notes, a new feature with Twitter-like styling. Similar to Twitter, Notes would let users submit “short-form content and exchange ideas” that may receive likes and comments. These comments would appear on a scrolling stream, similar to Twitter.
“The main distinction between Notes and common social media feeds is what you just can not see. Ads are not used to fund the Substack network. This has a radical impact “Substack posted a blog entry.
If the revelation and Twitter’s campaign against Substack connections are related to the debut of Notes is not yet known.
Wednesday: Notes are announced by Substack
Substack published a blog post on Wednesday announcing the launch of Notes, a new feature with Twitter-like styling. Similar to Twitter, Notes would let users submit “short-form content and exchange ideas” that may receive likes and comments. These comments would appear on a scrolling stream, similar to Twitter.
“The main distinction between Notes and common social media feeds is what you just can not see. Ads are not used to fund the Substack network. This has a radical impact “Substack posted in a blog entry.
If the revelation and Twitter’s campaign against Substack connections are related to the debut of Notes is not yet known.
Thursday night: Users start complaining that links from Substack are being blocked.
When Twitter users attempted to connect with postings that featured Substack links, they would get a message of error. This was first noticed by Substack bloggers who are using Twitter to market their works on Thursday afternoons.
According to Insider, Twitter also started rerouting Substack searches to newsletters, and if someone opened a Substack link, they would be sent a page alerting them that the link was hazardous.
Moreover, Substack observed that blog authors on their platform were having difficulties attempting to integrate Tweets into their entries.
Best claimed on Friday that Substack was “displeased” with the revisions in a message to the Verge.
Best said in a statement to the Verge that “this rapid move is a reminder of why authors want a model that puts them in control, that rewards exceptional work with money, and that safeguards the free media and freedom of speech.” Their livelihoods shouldn’t be dependent on platforms where the regulations are subject to change at any time and where they don’t control their audience relationships.
