Twitter flags Substack URLs as dangerous. Twitter will notify you that “the link you are trying to access has been flagged by Twitter or our partners as being potentially spammy or unsafe” if you click on a substack.com link.
The URLs we tested are secure. However, this notification appears to be Twitter’s latest attack against Substack after the email newsletter provider introduced its Twitter-like “Notes” feature on Wednesday.
Twitter stopped Substack users from embedding tweets into stories on Thursday. Twitter then blocked interaction on tweets with Substack links, allowing people to quote retweet but not like or retweet. Twitter then restricted official Substack tweets on Friday morning.
The dangerous warning is aggressive. However, according to the page’s recent update, Twitter’s URL policy hasn’t changed since 2020, and Substack’s site appears to be running as usual, so it’s unclear why Twitter is warning. In addition, Twitter’s press email auto-replies with a poop emoji since mid-March, and CEO Elon Musk hasn’t tweeted about Substack since.
Substack’s Twitter-like Notes functionality is the big issue. Matt Taibbi, a writer who has covered Musk, claimed Friday that an undisclosed individual told him, “Twitter is furious about the new Substack Notes function, which they regard as a hostile rival.” As a result, he was “given the choice of putting my writings on Twitter instead of Substack.”
Musk disabled links to Instagram, Mastodon, Facebook, and others in December, calling the “relentless promotion of competitors” a policy violation. The limitations were lifted. Since Substack is competing with Twitter, he may have brought it back, albeit you may still tweet a Substack link. To access the material, followers must click past the warning.
Substack didn’t react to The Verge’s warning request. Nonetheless, its creators have recently criticized Twitter’s platform.