Free Public

PLUS: Gas-Lighting Riley Gaines :: Democracy Dies in Disinfo :: Fear the GONGO

From a publishing point of view, Twitter and Facebook have been stagnant for over a decade. 

Facebook invested $36 billion into a creepy virtual reality experiment, “Metaverse,” that couldn’t even put legs on its avatars. It became one of the greatest high-tech failures in history, resulting in a 10,000-person layoff. 

For its part, Twitter built up a massive censorship bureaucracy and did little else to improve the platform.

Into the void stepped Substack with a look that was pleasant for readers and writers alike and allowed seamless integration of paywalls, videos, and tweets. 

Also revolutionary was the fact that Substack allowed creators to capture 87% of reader revenue.

At Substack, “You own what you create… Any original content you post, upload, share, store, or otherwise provide to Substack remains yours and is protected by copyright and any other applicable intellectual property laws.”

However social media platforms evolve, Public’s position is that creators should be able to place their content, including controversial political content, on every social media platform. On this score, the First Amendment and the self-interest of journalists are one.

As such, we are happy to announce that people will soon be able to subscribe to our content on multiple platforms. That includes Twitter, where Musk is promising to improve the ability of writers and other creators to publish.

Whatever happens next, recent events make clear that the freeing of the public by the Internet is too powerful a force for any platform to remain stagnant for long. 

Tech Bros Take The First