Why journalist Matt Taibbi, Substack and Elon Musk’s Twitter are at loggerheads

Matt Taibbi, an unbiased journalist and creator well-known for releasing Twitter Files, give up the microblogging platform after he claimed that it blocked entry to embedding tweets in posts on the web publishing platform Substack

Twitter additionally received’t permit any retweets, likes, or engagement with posts that contained hyperlinks to Substack articles, Taibbi claimed.

“It turns out Twitter is upset about the new Substack Notes feature, which they see as a hostile rival,” Taibbi wrote in a Substack put up he titled “The Craziest Friday Ever,” including: “I’m staying at Substack.”

Twitter chief government officer (CEO) Elon Musk denied Taibbi’s claims and even stated that the latter was an worker of Substack.

“Substack links were never blocked. Matt’s statement is false. Substack was trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone, so their IP address is obviously untrusted. Turns out Matt is/was an employee of Substack.,” he stated in response to a tweet.

Substack CEO Chris Best known as the entire scenario “very frustrating” and refuted Musk through his Substack Notes put up.

“Substack links have been obviously severely throttled on Twitter. Anyone using the product can see this. We have used the Twitter API, for years, to help writers. We believe we’re in compliance with the terms, but if they have any specific concerns we would love to know about them. We’d be happy to address any issues,” Best wrote within the put up.

Clearing the air about Taibbi’s employment with Substack, he stated, “Matt Taibbi is not and has never been an employee of Subtack. He writes a Substack and gets paid by his readers. That writers making money seems to be such a strange concept is telling.”

What’s the matter?

Earlier this week, Substack — a web-based platform that permits unbiased writers and podcasters to publish on to their viewers and receives a commission by subscriptions — introduced it will launch Substack Notes.

Substack has been testing this characteristic for weeks in a bid to woo high-profile figures away from Twitter.

On Thursday, Substack writers, who tried embedding tweets of their posts, had been met with a message, “Twitter has unexpectedly restricted access to embedding tweets in Substack posts.”

A day later, Twitter blocked customers from retweeting, liking, or partaking with posts containing hyperlinks to Substack articles. Further, customers couldn’t pin posts containing hyperlinks to Substack to the highest of their profiles. Later, Twitter marked hyperlinks to Substack as “unsafe.”

What else did Taibbi say?

Apart from his Substack Note, Taibbi additionally took to Twitter to make his views public. “ Of all things: I learned earlier today that Substack links were being blocked on this platform. When I asked why, I was told it’s a dispute over the new Substack Notes platform,” Taibbi tweeted.

He added, “Since sharing links to my articles is a primary reason I come to this platform, I was alarmed and asked what was going on. I was given the option of posting articles on Twitter instead. I’m obviously staying at Substack and will be moving to Substack Notes next week.”

What is Substack’s stand?

“We’re disappointed that Twitter has restricted writers’ ability to share their work. Writers deserve the freedom to share links to Substack or anywhere else,” stated Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Seth, the founders of Substack.

“This abrupt change is a reminder of why writers deserve a model that puts them in charge, that rewards great work with money, and that protects the free press and free speech,” they added.

The Twitter change has develop into an enormous downside for Substack writers, who use the Musk-run platform to advertise their newsletters.

According to Substack founders, “writers’ livelihoods should not be tied to platforms where they don’t own their relationship with their audience, and where the rules can change on a whim”.

(With inputs from businesses)