It appears that Twitter may be currently in conflict with newsletter platform Substack.
Substack writers started noticing that they were no longer able to embed tweets when creating a post on Substack yesterday. While this may just be a technical issue, perhaps related to Twitter’s switch to their much-criticized new API plans, it now appears that something is going on here.
Twitter now blocks likes, retweets, and comments on Tweets that include a link to a Substack newsletter. Additionally, Twitter users cannot pin a tweet that includes a Substack link on their profile.
The timing of these issues, which only seem to affect Substack links, is odd. Just a day before these Twitter bugs came to light, Substack announce New feature called Substack Notes. It basically brings a social media-like feed with tweet-like posts to the newsletter platform. It’s not quite a Twitter competitor, since it’s in the newsletter platform ecosystem, but it sure feels like one.
Yesterday, when Mashable reached out to Substack about the issue with the embed tweet, the spokesperson gave us the following statement.
The tweet may have been deleted
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“We are investigating reports that embeds and authentication no longer work on Substack,” said a Substack spokesperson. “We are actively trying to resolve this and will share updates as additional information becomes available.”
However, when Mashable reached out today about prohibited interactions on Tweets that include Substack links, we received a statement from Substack co-founders Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie and Jairaj Sethi.
“We are disappointed that Twitter has chosen to restrict writers’ ability to share their work,” Substack’s founders said in a statement provided to Mashable. “Writers deserve the freedom to share links with Substack or elsewhere. This sudden change is a reminder of why writers deserve a model that puts them in charge, rewards great work with money, and protects freedom of the press and freedom of expression. Livelihoods should not be tied to platforms where they don’t own their relationship to their audience , and where the rules can change on a whim.”
The tweet may have been deleted
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Researcher Jane Manchun Wong, an expert in discovering upcoming and unreleased features hidden within code within apps, first I noticed(Opens in a new tab) Twitter’s latest move last night.
Server errors with either: Authorization: Shares limited to the Tweet (id) or Authorization: Some actions on this Tweet (username) were disabled by Twitter. Unable to see the inner workings of Twitter.
Mashable’s own attempts to interact with the tweet that included the Substack link failed.
Credit: Mashable screenshot
Twitter users trying to Like, Retweet, or reply to it see a message that states, “Some actions in this Tweet have been disabled by Twitter.”
Credit: Mashable screenshot
As readers can see in the above screenshot of the test tweet that Wong posted, users can’t like or retweet the tweet including the Substack link. As the source code of Twitter’s recently released recommendation algorithm showed, these interactions greatly influence how far a tweet goes on the platform. As one can see, the lack of interactions on Wong’s tweet greatly reduced the number of views of her post.
One of the first to notice the embed problem was Garbage Day newsletter creator Ryan Broderick who got involved screenshot(Opens in a new tab) Thursday from the claim he was receiving on Substack.
The tweet may have been deleted
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Twitter’s move to block Substack links is certainly an odd move. Twitter itself once ran a Substack alternative called Revue. However, the company shut down the newsletter platform shortly after Musk took over. Twitter and Substack share the same tech venture capital as the investors. Many of the Twitter users that Musk interacts with frequently run Substack newsletters. Musk-approved Twitter profiles were mostly distributed via writer Matt Taibbi’s Subtack newsletter.
Elon Musk has repeatedly touted that his reasons for acquiring Twitter were to help level the playing field, and make it more “free speech,” for what it is. It is considered(Opens in a new tab) to be an “actual town square”.
However, this only seems to be the case if you don’t offer Twitter users an alternative platform.