Reporting Bad “Players” Better
Substack must have a better reporting system for trolls and Republican-maga-conspiracy theorists. Marking spam doesn’t help. I suggest “Intentionally lying and spreading disinformation” categories.
In the past 2 weeks, there have been a so many questionable profiles on Substack pushing polls and conspiracy theories that I thought Facebook was in control. The categories Substack offers are very weak when trying to report plain old lies and misinformation about the election and candidates.
Here’s a screenshot you’ve seen before if you curate your substack feed. There’s a problem with “Other” because the app freezes and you cannot explain. There’s no category for false information or intentional disinformation. Or slander.
This week I looked at the comments on posts about voting blue on the “US Election” tab—and, surprise! There are plenty of election deniers pushing baloney and outright lies with no way to really report them. There are no guardrails. When Substack decided to have a Notes section, I knew it would devolve in time to be like Facebook and the election has made even Substack loosey goosey.
My advice is curate your feed. Take time to check if real people are commenting—by checking their profiles. Look at who they read and who they are following. When you have no one in common, block. When any platform gets too big too fast, bad players seize the opportunity to steal the oxygen from the good and decent writers and readers. Help your loyal subscribers by doing due diligence on their behalf for their safety and sanity.
Stay safe and stay sane. I’m proud of our Blue Notes community for all your work fighting for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz! The Trump Cult will get down and dirtier between now and the election, and so far they have been guilty of projecting all of their bad behaviors on the Harris campaign. My mother always said, “A crook thinks everyone else is a crook just like him.” She was right. Projection has been Trump’s whole approach, hasn’t it?
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Thank you for writing about this Diane. Over the last several days there has been a significant uptick in trolls and bots. As Liz mentioned, the block function works wonders.
I’ve learned to make regular use of the block button on all the social media I’m on.