Perhaps this topic is a good one for a holiday like Columbus Day. Because nothing says colonialism and *enslavement *like tech bros stealing and throttling our work to buy another yacht or bunker while forcing us to live like serfs in their New Feudalist hellscape.
So I’m writing about algorithmic censorship again today. Not to whine or beg for money (though I do talk about money.) I’m not sure many Americans realize how much their information is being throttled and censored right now.
We are less than a month from the midterm elections. We must be vigilant in our attempts to get good information to our connections. At the end, I’ll provide several tools and ideas for readers to use to reach more people with good information that’s being throttled.
Last Friday, I wrote about how Substack is throttling and censoring my work. This censorship has a direct and meaningful impact on my reach, my ability to attract new subscribers, and my income.
For perspective, my income has fallen five figures in 2026.
Everyone is struggling. I don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for me or care; **I’m merely providing figures to demonstrate the severity of Substack’s algorithmic censorship and how it impacts creators. **Anyone can see that the above trajectory isn’t sustainable.
In addition to throttling, Substack is also delaying the delivery of notifications about live events and similar, especially to paid subscribers. I’ve had users tell me they didn’t get a notification about a live event until it was almost over. Users with both free and paid subs tell me they get the free notification immediately, while the paid sub notification doesn’t come until well into the event. Poor event attendance early-on also shapes Substack’s algorithmic tweaks, meaning they are engineering our own future throttling and blaming it on our less desirable content or whatever.
This censorship isn’t just happening with Substack.
US-based platforms with free email services (like Gmail) are also spamming and trashing progressive information using algorithms. (Every time someone reaches out to me and says they’re a paid subscriber who isn’t getting my messages, I believe this is the problem.) It’s an easy censorship tactic, especially when most people get more email than they can open and read. These services count on a healthy percentage of users never missing censored emails.
(UPDATE SINCE PUBLICATION: A Gmail user reported that all links in this newsletter were broken when they received it. So that’s yet another way US-based free email services like Gmail could be censoring progressive information: They make it look like email links don’t work. My husband and I both checked, and the links work fine on our non-US-based email services.)
Meta and TikTok are heavily censoring and removing progressive information. Especially around topics like reproductive healthcare, Democratic political candidates, and immigration. Readers may be sharing this work to social media, but it may never appear in anyone’s newsfeed.
This year, I believe Stripe (the Peter Thiel-owned service that processes Substack’s credit card payments) has gotten in on the act. My account has been inundated with failed payments in cases where a user has opted to auto-renew and kept a credit card on file for this purpose.
I’ve had a similar problem on my end when trying to support fellow Substackers and have largely opted to pay them directly for their work outside Substack and Stripe. However, this also hurts a creator’s reach, because those paid subscriptions do not count as paid subs within Substack.
As I said at the top, I also hear how financially strapped many unsubscribes are. I know people are overwhelmed, feel like they have too many subscriptions, can’t keep up with what they have, and can’t pay their basic bills.
I can’t discuss algorithmic censorship without talking about money. I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad for unsubscribing due to these challenges. In many cases where a subscriber is a long-time supporter who cites financial calamity, I’ve extended your paid subscriptions for 6 months to a year to thank you for supporting this work as long as you could.
Don’t rely on a newsfeed to show you information. Subscribe to the source.
Every newsfeed on every social media platform is manipulated and censored by algorithms. To create the best information stack for yourself, you must SUBSCRIBE to information directly. That way, it may appear in your inbox, and you’re not relying on an algorithm to passively show it to you in a feed.
QUIT USING GMAIL.
And any other free US-based email service. I have shared European Alternatives to US-Based Email Providers to death, but GO HERE to find it again.
Your free US-based email service is not private. I suspect that everything you send and receive has been provided to this government as part of building your master surveillance profile. These companies do not request warrants for such activity. They don’t care about privacy; they care about fascism, tech bro profit, and making themselves gods. STOP USING THEM.
Sign up for my FastAlert channel.
** GO HERE **to access my FastAlert channel. This delivers my Substack newsletters (and anything I may publish elsewhere in the future) directly to your device. You don’t have to provide an email address or mobile phone number. It bypasses email services and anything else tied to algorithms. It’s another way to ensure you’re getting my messages in an era of fascist censorship.
Create your own email, text, and FastAlert lists.
Don’t rely on sharing links to social media. Because of algorithmic censorship, too many of your connections never see what you share.
Create a list of persuadable connections. Then partition them into whether they prefer to hear from you by email or text. Once you create these lists, you can easily share my newsletters and anything else with them directly.
You can also create your own FastAlert channel to share information. I’ll reach out to to set up another live tutorial.
Take good information to your communities directly.
Use my newsletters for education sessions at your Indivisible chapters. Talk about them at HOA meetings. Bring them to volunteer sessions for local political party chapters. Print them out and leave them at your local coffee shops, libraries, and similar. And don’t shy away from talking about these issues one-on-one over tea or a beer.
Don’t rely solely on US-based news providers.
Use my recommendations list to find other good Substackers. Subscribe to them directly.
ProPublica is still doing stellar US-based investigative journalism. As are NPR and PBS. Subscribe and support them at the links on their names.
International news services are still functional and often provide a better window into what’s happening in the United States. I personally subscribe to The Guardian, and turn to the CBC (Canada), the BBC (UK), and AlJazeera (Qatar; used sporadically as it is partially funded by the Qatari government; but it is a good non-western perspective on world events.)
Financially support creators you don’t want to disappear.
Every day, the personal cost of doing this work goes up. Enemies lists. NSPM-7. Press bans. Prosecutions. Not to mention the mental and emotional toll.
It takes a lot to stay in this chair.
Through the Midterm Elections, I’m running a 20% off annual paid subscriptions FOREVER special. $48/year (reg $60.)
PLUS, I’m giving each new subscriber the option of gifting an annual sub to one of their connections for a year. You supply their email address; I’ll take care of setting it up. Which makes each annual sub just $24.
Click the button below to take advantage of this offer and support this work.
Other ways to support my work
Some subscribers want to kick in extra money but don’t want to commit to a Founding membership. Others might want to give a one-time amount for a newsletter they found especially helpful or useful. You can send those funds to me by Venmo by clicking the button below.
However you found me. Whatever you do to support me.
THANK YOU FOR BEING HERE. I APPRECIATE YOU.
