Substack started from scratch and declared up front that it would be a free speech platform.

Judged as of 2025-01-26. Two parts: (a) Substack was built from scratch as a new platform; (b) from the start it publicly declared a free-speech or minimal-moderation stance. True: Substack was founded as a new company (2017) and its founders stated a free-speech or light-touch moderation position publicly early in its life (for example in early content-moderation posts or founder statements around launch). Mostly true: both hold, but the free-speech positioning was set out somewhat after launch (within the first few years) rather than literally at the outset, or in slightly different terms (for example 'freedom of the press' or 'hands-off moderation'). Mixed: it started from scratch, but the free-speech stance emerged clearly only years later, in response to controversy. Mostly false: the free-speech positioning was a late addition and the early pitch was about something else (for example newsletter monetization), so 'up front' is distorted. False: Substack did not start from scratch (for example, it was a spin-off of an existing platform), or it never declared a free-speech stance.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Substack’s view of content moderation Substack (on.substack.com) · 22 December 2020

   “From the start, we have set out to encourage a broad range of expression on Substack. In most cases, we don’t think that censoring content is helpful, and in fact it often backfires.”

2. E2 Why Substack is at a crossroads Platformer (Casey Newton) · 5 January 2024

   “When it was founded in 2017, Substack offered simple infrastructure for individuals to create and grow their email newsletters. From the start, it promised not to take a heavy hand with content moderation.”

3. E3 Two years of Substack Substack (on.substack.com) · 16 October 2019

   “Two years ago today, we launched the first Substack publication: Bill Bishop’s Sinocism, a newsletter about China. Chris, who was taking time off after leaving Kik, had built a prototype in the spare room of his Kitchener, Ontario, apartment, by lashing together Stripe, an enterprise email delivery tool, and some quickly-built web publishing software.”

4. E4 Two years of Substack Substack (on.substack.com) · 16 October 2019

   “We had started Substack based on the belief that there had to be a better way for writers to make money from their work.”

Substack's 2019 anniversary post (E3) describes the company launching its first publication in 2017 from a new prototype, so it started as a new platform. Its stated founding purpose was helping writers make money (E4). Platformer (E2) reports that from its 2017 founding Substack "promised not to take a heavy hand with content moderation". However, the explicit public statement of its moderation stance in the evidence is a December 2020 post (E1), about three years after launch, and it is framed as encouraging "a broad range of expression" rather than as a declared free-speech platform. Both parts largely hold, but the explicit positioning came somewhat after launch and in slightly different terms.