MRC Actually Defends Neo-Nazi Content On Substack As ‘Free Speech’

The Media Research Center’s flip-flop on Nazi references is complete — from complaining when others do them to smearing people it doesn’t like as “digital brownshirts,” and now to defending Nazi content online. Luis Cornelio wrote in a Dec. 22 post:

A co-founder of Substack rejected efforts that seek to punish egregious content that is otherwise protected by the First Amendment, delivering a rebuke against widespread censorship plots to thwart free speech.

Substack co-founder Hamish McKenzie authored a Dec. 21 article announcing that the newsletter and article-hosting platform would not demonetize nor de-platform “fringe voices.” The move came in response to over 200 Substack authors pressing the platform on why “Nazis” are allowed to publish content. However, McKenzie wrote that he — along with Substack co-founders Chris Best and Jairaj Sethi — “have been listening to all the views being expressed” concerning “fringe voices on the platform (and particularly, in this case, Nazi views).” McKenzie further wrote that censorship will not make the “problem go away—in fact, it makes it worse.”

McKenzie added, “We believe that supporting individual rights and civil liberties while subjecting ideas to open discourse is the best way to strip bad ideas of their power. We are committed to upholding and protecting freedom of expression, even when it hurts.”

[…]

Substack’s free speech position directly contrasts those of writers who issued a “collective letter” posing the following question to the company’s founders: “Why are you platforming and monetizing Nazis?” 

The concerned Substack writers cited a report by The Atlantic accusing Substack of becoming a “home and propagator of white supremacy and anti-Semitism.” The Atlantic named as examples in its allegations AndKon’s Reich Press and white supremacist site White-Papers, both of which have amassed a scant few dozen likes on some of their posts. 

McKenzie declared that he does not agree with the views spewed by these alleged “Nazi” Substacks, but he rightly cautioned that censorship is not the proper solution. 

Note that Cornelio put “Nazi” in scare quotes, as if that isn’t what these people are. He then quoted his boss trying to justify all this:

MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider hailed Substack’s move: “Nobody despises Nazis more than I do, but I cherish free speech even more. Hamish is spot on; the way to defeat terrible ideas is by rebutting them with better ones, not by using fascistic censorship tactics.”

But Nazism has already been defeated — an entire world war was fought to do so. And Schneider doesn’t seem to understand that another way to defeat terrible ideas is to deny them prominence on a mainstream platform like Substack. (Also, Schneider doesn’t “cherish free speech” enough to cease blocking ConWebWatch from following the MRC’s @FreeSpeechAmer Twitter/X feed.)

Schneider and Cornelio also avoided discussing what may the bigger issue: Nazis are making money posting their content on Substack. Like others on the platform, writers keep most of the money generated through Substack. Some Substack users have left the platform or threatened to do so over this extreme “free speech” attitude.

The MRC hasn’t written anything on the controversy since, even after Substack relented and removed five of the offending accounts (though there are many more).