So Long & Farewell: Matt Taibbi Leaving Twitter After Platform Limits Substack Tweets
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According to Twitter's old investor relations page, the social media site was created "to give everyone the power to create and share ideas and information instantly, without barriers."
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matt Taibbi announced on Twitter that he will be leaving the platform next week in favor of Substack’s new Substack Notes feature.
Taibbi said he is leaving the social media site after finding out it had begun limiting tweets that include links to Substack articles. Substack is a platform that enables writers to create free and paid newsletters that are sent directly to subscribers. Since Taibbi left Rolling Stone magazine, it has been the primary outlet for his articles.
Starting in December of last year, Taibbi and several other journalists published the “Twitter Files” exposing government censorship on the platform that occurred before Tesla CEO Elon Musk purchased the platform for $44 billion in October.
Musk provided the journalists with internal Twitter employee and executive communications that exposed the intelligence community and affiliated NGOs' attempts to stifle speech on the platform.
Despite this connection, Taibbi does not seem interested in staying on the platform if it cannot be used to share his work.
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.
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) April 7, 2023
I’m obviously staying at Substack, and will be moving to Substack Notes next week.
Taibbi did not clarify who at Twitter he asked about the change, he previously said he does not have a direct line of communication with Elon Musk.
Substack Notes is a new feature introduced by Substack earlier this week. When launched, it will allow users to share short-form writings, not entirely unlike Twitter. The main differentiator between it and “legacy social networks” according to Substack, is that Notes will not be funded by ads and will have the ultimate goal of converting casual readers into paid subscribers.
Musk has often called himself a free speech absolutist and said that all legal speech should be allowed on the platform. However, he has been inconsistent in allowing speech on the platform. He lifted the ban on former President Donald Trump, but not Infowars host Alex Jones. Musk said that was because of Jones’ previous peddling of conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook Massacre because of his personal feelings about that tragedy, but other conspiracy promoters have been welcomed back to the platform.
After Taibbi’s posts, Musk stopped following the journalist on Twitter.
Earlier on Friday, the founders of Substack issued a statement responding to Twitter limiting tweets with Substack links on the platform.
“We’re disappointed that Twitter has chosen to restrict writers’ ability to share their work. Writers deserve the freedom to share links to Substack or anywhere else. This abrupt change is a reminder of why writers deserve a model that puts them in charge, that rewards great work with great money, and that protects the free press and free speech,” the statement reads.
