Is this Twitter-like Notes feature on Substack the reason for its restrictions on the social media site? (Image; Substack)
Substack's founders have criticized Twitter's new restrictions that prevent promoting tweets with links from its publishing platform. According to founders Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Sethi, this move reminds us why writers need a platform that "puts them in charge, that rewards great work with money, and that protects the free press and free speech." They added that 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."
Twitter users have noticed that they couldn't like, reply to, or retweet some tweets that had Substack links in them. The social media platform hasn't said anything about the change, but as The Verge pointed out, it comes at a time when Substack introduced a Twitter-esque feature called Notes. And this isn't the first time under Elon Musk's Twitter that it banned all links to competitors like Instagram and Mastodon. That change has been reversed since.