Substack Censorship

"This post could not be recommended"

Substack removes the cross posting capability on large accounts when it pleases to do so. I can prove it. And I’m not the only one who can.

Cross posting is a great way to amplify content on Substack. It’s different from restacking. When you cross post someone else’s post, that post appears on your own Substack site and is seen by your own subscribers. But it’s really a link: when your readers click on it, they are transported to the other author’s Substack and read it there.

That’s why cross posting is way more powerful than restacking. And for a small Substack account like mine - I currently have about 700 subscribers - it’s a great way of gaining more subscribers.

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What Happened

A few days ago, I published the second part of my interview with Sasha Latypova about Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Citizen Petition asking the FDA to revoke BLA licensure for Pfizer’s Komirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax Covid-19 vaccines.

Here is the link: How the FDA Lied to the American People About Covid-19 ‘Clinical Trials’

Sasha usually cross posts my interviews with her. But when she tried to cross post the last one, the cross post option was missing from the drop down menu. Sasha has more than 60,000 subscribers - it’s a very large Substack account with considerable amplification power.

Here are the screenshots she sent me - no cross posting function anywhere:

The first thing I did when I saw her message was to check if I could cross post my interview with her on my Substack. I could:

The cross post functionality was visible in the drop down menu. I would have been able to cross post my own post:

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The Experiment

Then I decided to run a little experiment to find out whether the cross posting function for this particular interview had disappeared only for Sasha Latypova or if other Substacks experienced the same.

I asked three different Substackers to participate in this experiment: Pierre Obertin’s Expressis Verbis Substack with several hundred subscribers, Debbie Lerman’s Substack with almost 7,000 subscribers and Meryl Nass’ Substack with over 60,000 subscribers - a similar number to Sasha’s own account.

The reason I wanted three Substacks that vary dramatically in size is this: small Substacks have weak amplification power when cross posting. Which I think makes it unlikely that Substack would bother to take their cross posting functionality away for posts they want to suppress.

I have some proof that this theory might be correct: In December 2025, Meryl Nass tried to cross post an article by Steve Kirsch about Barry Young’s criminal trial in New Zealand but Substack wouldn’t let her. Young, by the way, is the whistleblower who leaked Covid-19 vaccination data from New Zealand’s public health agency.

When Meryl emailed me the same day that she couldn’t cross post Kirsch’s post, I tried to cross post it from my small Substack account. I could do it - no problem.

But what about medium accounts? Would they be able to cross post content that Substack wants to hide? And would big accounts with significant amplification power?

All three agreed to participate in the experiment.

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The Result

For Pierre, cross posting was possible:

Debbie Lerman had no problems with cross posting either. She went ahead and actually cross posted it.

And Meryl Nass also had the cross posting functionality:

Based on the results of this experiment, I now think it’s likely that it is only Sasha’s Substack that cannot cross post . After all, her Substack was the one and only Substack among the 50,000 or so content producing Substacks that was likely to cross post the interview.

Substack knew this since she had cross posted my interviews with her in the past. Why would Subtack take the time and trouble restricting other accounts from cross posting then?

All it needed to do to restrict visibility was to remove the cross posting functionality from Sasha Latypova’s Substack.

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Or Is It a Bug?

But could it have been a glitch? Maybe this is not censorship at all? I think that unlikely. What’s the chance that some bug in the software would occur in the one Substack that was likely to cross post - but not in others that were not interested in cross posting?

Also, a dropdown menu is a dropdown menu. An option in a dropdown menu doesn’t just go randomly missing once in a while. I worked as a software developer myself and know how buggy software is and that you’ll never get all bugs out of any software ever. You just never discover all the bugs. But an option in a dropdown menu getting lost somehow for some people only? That’s fishy.

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Meryl’s Experience with Substack’s Cross-Posting Censorship

I already mentioned that Meryl, late last year, could not cross post an article about whistleblower Barry Young. However, in her case, the cross post option had not disappeared. It was where it was supposed to be but she was nonetheless unable to cross post.

Here is her description of what happened: “It is giving me the circle of doom at the bottom... It was only after my 3d attempt that I received the damning message.”

Below is her screenshot with the ‘circle of doom’:

And this is the damning message after her third attempt:

Substack had a problem with the post she tried to cross post. I leave it to your imagination why.

But it wasn’t brave enough to stand up tall for its nefarious censorship and proclaim: “Substack does not recommend this post.” No, it hides behind the meekly passive voice: “This post could not be recommended” - no reason given.

Well, so what? Who cares if Substack can or cannot recommend? The post doesn’t violate any of Substack’s content guidelines (which are here in case you want to check for yourself). If Substack for some reason doesn’t like the post, too bad for Substack.

That’s the way it looks, right? After all, there is a button and it’s active - although it says something weird: “Send cross-post undefined.” Hmmm, not good, sending something undefined needs some definition.

You won’t be surprised then that, when she clicked on it, this not so promising looking button did not send anything, defined or not. Meryl: “It stops you from sending it.”

Maybe Substack should invest some time and thought into streamlining the censorship experience for Substack authors. Maybe make it more straightforward and less Kafkaesque?

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A Curious Coincidence

When I asked Meryl yesterday if she’d be willing to take part in my little cross posting experiment, she wrote back that just that very day she again was prevented from cross posting in exactly the same way as in December.

This time it was an article by MAHA Report about RFK that she wanted to cross post. And again, she saw the cross posting functionality in the menu but was informed further down that “this post could not be recommended.” And, again, clicking on the active cross-post button didn’t do anything.

Have a look at the title of the article she would have cross posted if she could have. Another curious coincidence: It’s not only ‘the media’ who doesn’t want you to know, it’s Substack too.

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Substack’s Content Guidelines

In its content guidelines, Substack claims to not only host but CELEBRATE a diverse range of thought and discussion. It’s almost exactly a year since these guidelines became effective.

I’m not quite sure how a publishing platform ‘celebrates’ different opinions other than simply publishing them. But I know from the culture wars that the use of this word in this context is ominous.

It looks like Substack celebrates diversity by silencing voices outside of its approved “diverse range of thought and discussion.” What falls outside this apparently rather narrow diverse range “can’t be recommended.”

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I dare you to cross post this post :)