Elon Musk LIES about Substack ban, goes after #TwitterFiles journalist, and gets fact checked on his own site.
Substack responds and gives writers private beta access to Twitter competitor Notes.
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Update: Since I published this, it looks as though Twitter has STOPPED disabling Substack links and tweets tagging Substack.
When judging people, you should never judge them by their words. You judge them by their behaviors.
People use words to lie all the time but behaviors will always tell you what they really think and what they really value.
For example, if someone claims to be in favor of protecting free speech and embracing independent journalism….and then takes actions that completely undercut the independent journalists he claims to value, then you know that his words mean nothing. His actions tell the story.
It’s hard enough to push back on the insanity of the woke cultural revolution, but having people you think are on your team undermine your efforts is downright black pilling.
Such is the case with Elon Musk.
In this feud that he has started with Substack, we are getting insight into how he makes business decisions and what is driving his behavior.
I like a lot of the decisions Elon has made regarding Twitter, but this scenario has given me pause. And this morning, it just got worse.
Yesterday, I covered that Twitter has disabled Substack links, making it impossible for anyone to like, share, or reply to a link coming from Substack and provided a workaround for writers on the platform to still post their work there.
After Twitter made this move, #TwitterFiles journalist Matt Taibbi sided with team Substack. This makes sense: Matt has an extremely popular Substack with 10s of thousands of paid subscribers who support his work.
Last night, many Substack writers (including me) were given access to the private beta of Substack Notes, the Twitter competitor that set off this whole feud.
It’s pretty great, if I’m honest, and I’ll give people a preview of it in another post.
In response to Matt Taibbi refusal to leave Substack, Twitter apparently decided to delete all of Matt’s work on the #TwitterFiles, only to tell him they would restore it. He made these posts to Substack Notes last night:
Earlier today, Musk made his first public statement on the issue, responding to commentator Bret Weinstein on Twitter:
Not long after Elon made his statement Substack Co-Founder Chris Best responded via Substack notes claiming Musk is being less than forthcoming with his explanation.
And it looks like he’s not the only one to take issue with the claims. Not long ago, Elon Musk actually received a fact check on his own website, with the inclusion of a community note to give more context regarding what links being “blocked” means:
Why discuss this?
Because bad actors hurt all of us, and we should be honest about that. If the adults in the room do not prevail, then we are all lost.
Caught in the middle of all of this are the Substack writers, the regular people who are grinding away day in and day out to share information with the world.
These are the independent journalists that Elon Musk claims to support.
Does blocking the sharing of links over a petty feud support independent journalism?
Does lying about the reason for the change support the people who have done nothing more than commit the crime of using a platform that Elon Musk doesn’t like (or, perhaps, is afraid of)?
Judge him based on his behaviors. Let me know what you think in the comments.
What do you think?
Leave a comment and let me know. And please share this material with people who need to read it.
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I think he's making the same mistakes that other large platforms did when they try to be everything to everyone. He should focus on making Twitter a better verion of what it is, not a monopoly of all social media functions.
Seems like the best choice would be for someone in management at Substack to phone Musk and talk it over. Has anyone done that or would people rather argue?