Substack users were in for a strange surprise today when trying to share links on Twitter and encountered an error message when interacting with any tweet with a Substack link. Tweets with an outbound link to Substack cannot be retweeted, replied to, or even liked. The error message states that “Twitter has disabled some actions on this tweet.” The loss of functionality even extends to tools like TweetDeck.
You can still tweet Substack links, but that’s where the compromise ends. This could be a garden variety bug, but could be a response from Musk and Twitter to Substack. . After all, Twitter is no stranger to silencing rivals. The social network briefly placed restrictions on tweets with outbound links to , even banning outbound links to other social media profiles in bios. Musk has also experimented with banning journalists from covering Twitter and made other questionable decisions for a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist.
The Substack founders issued a response to the measure and it certainly sounds like they believe the restrictions were instituted on purpose and not as part of a system bug.
“We are disappointed that Twitter has chosen to restrict the ability of writers to share their work. Writers deserve the freedom to share links to Substack or anywhere else. This abrupt change is a reminder why writers deserve a role model that puts them in charge.” the founders wrote.
There is another option beyond spite or a system error. Substack may have run afoul of Twitter’s recently announced API pricing scheme. The sheer number of links to Substack content from users would force the company to invest in the enterprise-grade API at $42,000 per month. If Substalk took issue with these costs and Twitter found out about it, this could be another
A statement from our founders:
Any platform that benefits from the work of writers and creators, but doesn’t give them control over their relationships, will inevitably wonder how to respond to platforms that do.
— Substack (@SubstackInc) April 7, 2023
Substack says that it is the recently imposed restrictions and that it will “share updates as additional information becomes available.” The company shared a blog post in which he expressed his hope that these moves were made in error and stated that “cracks are beginning to show in the legacy business models of the Internet.” We have reached out to Substack and will update this post if the situation changes or functionality is restored.
