I have been a Substack and Patreon user for a few years now. And though more than one social media giant has, in recent months, expressed the desire to help writers and journalists monetise their audience, there are very good reasons to take these SOPs with a pinch of salt.

Because the reason Patreon and Substack came into existence was not the need for a new business model. It was as a cure for the old business model - an algorithm-driven ad revenue system that powered the attention economy. The attention economy turned audiences into scrollers...
...who were in it for the next viral hit. Quality of information suffered, the nature of discourse suffered, and as a result, democracy itself suffered. Much of this was enabled by the social media giants who are trying to copy the Substack and Patreon model right now in an...
...attempt to "put creators first". But what we must not lose sight of is that the Substack / Patreon model only emerged as a result of the bad practices the social media giants enabled. The algorithm made a toxic internet possible and they were what hit back. Today, multiple...
...podcasting tools video streaming services have donation buttons built in. But it was not always so. I applaud all attempts that anyone makes to help independent media not have to rely on ad money, but I am not going to ever be able to see Facebook's newsletter tool as a...
...Substack equivalent. One should not get credit for coming last in the race to solve a problem that they themselves created. Especially when in my own country, these social media giants' links to fascism enablers remain as strong as ever. If they can delete dissident voices'...
...accounts from their platform after a request from the government that those voices were speaking up against, why would I trust them with my mailing list? Why would I put all my eggs in the basket that has proven to be inadequate protection for them time and time again? Nope.

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