Nilay Patel, interviewer: No, I really want you to answer that question. Is that allowed on Substack Notes? “We should not allow brown people in the country.”
Chris Best, Substack CEO: I’m not going to get into gotcha content moderation.
NP: This is not a gotcha... I’m a brown person. Do you think people on Substack should say I should get kicked out of the country?
CB: I’m not going to engage in content moderation, “Would you or won’t you this or that?”
NP: That one is black and white, and I just want to be clear: I’ve talked to a lot of social network CEOs, and they would have no hesitation telling me that that was against their moderation rules.
CB: Yeah. We’re not going to get into specific “would you or won’t you” content moderation questions.
[...]
NP: You have to figure out, “Should we allow overt racism on Substack Notes?” You have to figure that out.
CB: No, I’m not going to engage in speculation or specific “would you allow this or that” content.
NB: You know this is a very bad response to this question, right? You’re aware that you’ve blundered into this. You should just say no. And I’m wondering what’s keeping you from just saying no.
CB: I have a blanket [policy that] I don’t think it’s useful to get into “would you allow this or that thing on Substack.”