Elon Musk Denies Reports Saying Twitter Blocks Links to Substack

Elon Musk has denied blocking links to Substack (photo: Twitter @elonmusk)

JAKARTA - Some time ago, Twitter was seen limiting users to the Substack platform, starting from blocking Substack users from embedding tweets into stories, blocking engagement (likes and retweets) on tweets that contain links to Substack, to applying the same restrictions to tweets from accounts. Substack official.

Not long after, Twitter CEO Elon Musk finally opened his voice about this problem. In his tweet, Musk insisted that Twitter has never blocked links to Substack posts.

Despite the fact that Twitter is displaying a warning that links to Substack may not be secure. "The substack may contain malicious links that attempt to steal your personal information or may even contain violent or misleading content," the warning reads.

1. Substack links were never blocked. Matt’s statement is false.

2. Substack was trying to download a massive portion of the Twitter database to bootstrap their Twitter clone, so their IP address is obviously untrusted.

3. Turns out Matt is/was an employee of Substack.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2023

"Substack links are never blocked. Matt's statement is wrong," Musk said, in reply to a tweet from Matt Taibbi, who is also an American writer or journalist about Twitter blocking links to Substack.

According to some reports, it seems that what Twitter did to Substack is because the rival platform launched a "Notes" feature similar to Twitter. However, Musk accused Substack of trying to download information from Twitter to help build this new feature.

"Substack is trying to download a large portion of Twitter's database to bootstrap their Twitter clone, so their IP address is clearly not trustworthy," he said in the same tweet.

In response to Musk's statement, Substack co-founder Chris Best denied it, writing that although Substack had been using Twitter's API for years, he didn't believe they were doing anything illegal.

“We believe that we comply with the requirements, but if they have a specific issue, we want to know! We'd be happy to address any concerns," Best wrote.