Subscription newsletter platform Substack has fired an early shot across the bow at Twitter employees — at least those upset about billionaire Elon Musk purchasing a 9.2% stake of the company this week.
On Tuesday, Lulu Cheng Meservey, vice president of communications at Substack, Inc., tweeted this company employment announcement, along with a not-so-subtle dig at disgruntled Twitter workers.
"Substack is hiring!
"If you're a Twitter employee who's considering resigning because you're worried about Elon Musk pushing for less regulated speech ... please do not come work here."
Founded in 2017, the San Francisco, California-based Substack's online platform provides publishing, payment, analytics, and design infrastructure to support subscription newsletters. Writers and journalists are free to write and send digital newsletters to their bases of subscribers, without worrying about corporate interference.
Meservey's bold Tweet was likely a reference to the left-leaning outrage surrounding Elon Musk, the entrepreneur and free-speech advocate who now controls the highest individual stake at Twitter, along with a prized seat on Twitter's board of directors.
On March 26, prior to the stock announcement, Musk cryptically tweeted, "Given that Twitter serves as the de facto public town square, failing to adhere to free speech principles fundamentally undermines democracy. What should be done?"
And after the news broke, Musk's strategic social-media messaging has been effective on two fronts: His Twitter affiliation has invigorated a number of disenchanted users who had been turned off by Twitter's apparent suppression of free speech, often targeting conservative-leaning users.
Also, Twitter's development team has welcomed the notion of adding new features to the platform, most notably an "Edit" button for posts.
This week, Twitter executives, including new CEO Parag Agrawal, publicly welcomed Musk's addition to the board. But privately, it's fair to wonder if Musk's free-expression stance will irk a certain faction of Twitter executives, employees, and shareholders.
As a prime example, Twitter said on Tuesday that Musk's presence wouldn't be enough to lift the permanent Twitter ban on former President Donald Trump.
However, if Musk owns the highest share of Twitter stock — and has an avenue for purchasing more down the road — his opinions about welcoming all forms of free speech might carry the greatest weight. Trump could be back.
After the Musk-Twitter relationship went public, a Bloomberg op-ed on Tuesday labeled the move "bad news for free speech." That same day, hosts of "The View," ABC's daytime political talk show, reportedly criticized Musk's innovative car company, Tesla.
In effect, anything to minimize Musk's impact in American culture ... even though he's currently the richest man in the world (net worth: $219 billion, according to Forbes), well-known in pop-culture circles (Musk hosted "Saturday Night Live" last year), and has 80.7 million Twitter followers.
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