Substack Stifles Realists, & NOW Makes Money From It Using The "Online Safety Act"

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»» RANT ALERT ««

SOME posts of SOME Substackers are not being seen unless SOME readers prove they’re an adult - Even though said posts contain no “adult content”?

Well that makes complete sense …. totally fair. Hmm?

On top of that, the private conversations, images, links etc. sat in the chats of [again] SOME Substackers are basically being held to ransom … by Substack.

Just in case you missed the email sent a week or so ago, entitled …

Heads up: UK Online Safety Act Compliance

Hello,

We wanted to give you a quick heads-up that in order to comply with new UK government requirements under the Online Safety Act, Substack is introducing age verification steps for those in the UK. Readers can still browse Substack without verifying, but some posts and features may be hidden or limited.

Here’s what to know:

• Your connection with your subscribers won’t change. The way you publish content for your audience remains the same. If any content is flagged as potentially harmful, subscribers who have not already completed the age verification process will see a notice explaining that age verification is required before viewing it, either on the website or in the Substack app. Your email list, publishing process, and relationship with your readers are not affected.

• Paid subscribers are already verified. Anyone with a credit card on file [for example, paid subscribers] is already considered verified—no extra steps are needed.

• Many readers are already verified. Because all online platforms must implement age verification in your country, some users may have already completed this through Stripe or Persona and won’t need to do it again.

• Your data is private. The verification process is secure and handled by trusted providers like Stripe and Persona.

• We’re complying with the Online Safety Act and are working to make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone. Please visit our policy page* for more information on how the Online Safety Act may impact your content.

You can check your verification status here**. If you’d like to encourage your subscribers in the UK to verify their age and avoid any interruptions, you can share the following message:

The UK’s Online Safety Act is requiring platforms like Substack to introduce age verification for readers.

Verifying your age helps unlock the full Substack experience. It’s optional, but if you don’t verify, you may see some posts hidden or have limited access to features like Chat, DMs, and livestreams.

The process is secure and handled by trusted providers like Stripe and Persona.

To avoid any interruptions in seeing the great stuff on Substack, make sure you verify your age. For details on how to verify your age, or if you have questions, please visit Substack’s support page.

Thanks for everything you do to help make Substack the home for great culture,

Standards and Enforcement Substack

* If you click on the link to the Substack policy page in the email above, using a proper secure browser, the page will be flagged …

If you delve a bit deeper, starting with “Our position on the Online Safety Act” & read how Substack are “complying with the U.K. and Australia’s new regulatory measures”, or just carry on reading here, you’ll see that nothing adds up … & Substack are lying.

Miri AF has written about this also. As always, the piece has many rather good points:

Junking juries, and abolishing anonymous internet

Back to this week …

This little sweetheart popped-up yesterday when I attempted to send a private message to a friend ….

Like many folks, my chat is not fully open or public. There’s also [believe it or not] no hint of adult content in any of the private messages …'private’ being the operative word here.

So what Substack have basically done is stop certain folks from privately messaging each other … unless they pay by registering themself with a dodgie company &/or sign up for a paid subscription [which Substack get a cut of]?

This was all done after giving wishy washy warning saying that we may

“… see some posts hidden or have limited access to features like Chat, DMs, and livestreams”

The word ‘may’ indicates that the Substack bots [probably a few soulless humans too] will be picking & choosing who can & cannot do certain things. As with the shadow banning & the victimisation of certain individuals [quite a lot of us!] in the last 5+ years … this is blatant bullying. Which is rather ironic seeing as number 3 on Subcack’s list of the content restricted to adults [as per Starmers lot] is ‘Bullying or harassment’.

Aside from articles & posts not being seen, imagine how much information can’t be accessed in chats: Links, records of conversations that may be needed for some reason. Maybe a nice natter that somebody wanted to keep for sentimental reasons, business communications. Or ‘evidence’ preserved - for whatever reason - in messages that now can’t be seen …. unless you do what they say.

[Always take screenshots of conversations with questionable individuals at the first sign of an alarm bell].

To insult us even further Substack gave us a pre-written message to share if we’d like to “encourage” UK subscribers to

“… verify their age and avoid any interruption”

To clarify: If we become a paid subscriber we can then consider ourselves “verified”.

So I don’t understand why I am being asked to prove my age, as I have already gone through their “verification process” [no, I haven’t bowed down to Starmer’s rent boys]:

I realised Substack have my bank card details on file from when I was a paid subscriber [this I cancelled a year ago as I no longer trusted the woman]. In fact I can show you:

If I go to upgrade a subscription my card details are already sat there, all comfy snug. Because Substack has stored them ……

The thing is, this is an old bank card that’s out of date & it went into the bin ages ago. The details are not stored on my device because I got that months after the bank card was thrown away.

This is proof Substack have my card “on file”, & so they should not be asking me to provide proof, in any form, of my age.

Plus, when I do click to verify [which I have only done to see what they are asking of us] the buttons & links don’t work! So I couldn’t sell my soul to Starmer/Substack even if I wanted to. Either way, there’s a load of content I can’t see & I can’t interact privately with anyone. Job done Substack 👍️

Oh & another thing ….. Some folks might get this pop-up:

Of course you have to verify your age once you click on it or scan [if you’re stupid enough to play that game].

The thing is ….. My subscriber chat is not open! It’s purely for private messages. So how sneaky is that?

So I reckon that’s more than enough to demonstrate Substack are:

1. Deliberately using the “UK Online Safety Act” for their own financial gain

2. Collating data &

C. Are complete & utter bastuds

The ridiculous thing is, I was drinking in pubs & clubs from the age of 14. I wasn’t once asked to prove my age. But since flockdown, & now at almost 60 years old, I’m asked at least once a week, when I receive deliveries, to prove I’m a bleedn adult!

One more minor detail [pun intended] to do with Brits verifying their age on [anti]social media using a bank card:

We don’t actually need to be 18 or over to get a bank account & card in the UK!

A musical interlude - The Clash, from the 80’s …..

… All these years & I’ve only just realised they threw in a bit of Spanish at the end [backing vocals in the last verse & chorus].

Most of us with two brain cells saw this coming.

When I came over to Substack in January-ish of 2024, like many folks, I found it nice & comfy. But, if I’m totally honest, also a bit too good to be true.

Just like Telegram [where way too many “awake” individuals actually believe the owner’s posts about his encounters with the French police & having to comply with certain “laws”] the contradictions & giveaways are there in plain sight to be seen.

They know full well that we have been, & are, desperate for somewhere online we can exercise our natural right to talk freely. Because they are consciously doing their damndest to try & take that right away from us. The work in relation to this didn’t start in 2019 with the covid-19 [small’ c’] chapter of the storybook. It began many years ago when links to sources of information, that went against the narrative, were redirected. Then they thought up “shadow banning”. Those two examples are of course recent. We can go even further back to 1963 to see where the actual “conspiracy theorists” label started & why [I shall leave you to look into that one 👍️]

Image - aarp.org

Many of us believe that truth speakers - be it in relation to health, politics, the environment … whatever [mind you, it’s all bloody connected isn’t it?] - have been deliberately herded to both Telegram & Substack. This is so “they” can keep an eye on us all - The old ‘bait & switch’ shall never die, & even though we see it coming …. we still bite. Because they know that the need for interaction with other human beings is natural, & total isolation is rarely sought [or should I say was rarely sought?].

From about 2021 it became clear that Telegram were shadow banning. Certain groups, channels & individuals were [are] not coming up in searches. Private invite links being deactivated as soon as they were [are] sent, & individuals not being able to access chats as they were [are] “Banned by an admin” was [is] a regular occurance. A lot of the time the admin or group owner had not actually banned them. They’d actually been added to a big momma of a spam list by an individual known as “Milou” [more to come on him separately - please message me comment if you’ve experienced this profile]. It took [takes] days, often weeks, to find out what was [is] going on. I gave up trying to sort my little “issues”, which is probably exactly what they want us to do.

Apart from suspect admins, obviously there are the 77th Brigade girlies to contend with everywhere & other agencies like the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. You can see who the ISD “experts” are here if you fancy a peep [look at their eyes]. The ISD was founded by a woman. I don’t know why but, rightly or wrongly, I always find it even more appalling when a woman does a job like that. That one founded the company is …...

The bottom line is - the [anti]social media platforms have totally manipulated us, & in many ways. It doesn’t take a genius to see how they used the flockdowns to flex their muscles & attempt to grind their boots into our necks.

Agenda 21 was gliding into Agenda 2030 nicely thank you very much. In the UK the smiles of the Eton boys’ grew [party irrelevant] ….. along with their bank accounts. Because they knew what was leading where, & why.

When flockdowns ended there were certain “awake” individuals who “celebrated” as though it was all over. The realists rolled their eyes, knowing that it was far from over, & that “they” were just getting warmed -up.

Do I think we should be leaving Substack & go somewhere else?

Noap, because that is just what they want. The games they play are intended to tire us out, until we not only leave [anti]social media but ‘retire’ completely. It’s actually worked with too many ‘activists’.

I personally think we should be backing up our work [which we should do automatically anyway] plus get on other platforms. Those using Linux will be aware of a few alternatives [more to follow on that soon]. But yes, I do think we should stay on Subcack … just to be pain in the arse if nothing else.

There have been folks asking for suggestions for alternative platforms to move over to. Here’s an idea …… do your research & find them!

One sentence in the email from the ‘Standards & Enforcement’ bods [clue’s in the title] is what we should be paying attention to:

“Your email list, publishing process, and relationship with your readers are not affected”

Correct me if I am wrong here, but they can’t stop subscribers from seeing emails/newsletters. They can of course try. It’s well known that Gmail & Hotmail users are practically walking around in their undies as it is. But Proton ain’t as nice as we all thought either, it’s just not as bad as the others. What do we expect from something that’s the baby of a team of scientists at CERN in Switzerland [home of the WEF].

Did the chap that gave the us the “world wide web” as a gift work at CERN? Or is that more propaganda? Please answer in the comments if you know.

To end:

If you ‘follow’ someone on Substack ….. please SUBSCRIBE to them also. Because if they are a truth speaker the chances of them coming up on your feed nowadays are rather bloody slim.

I think this is the only way we are going to get round this bullshit & still get the truth out to folks - by using email. Because using a VPN doesn’t work on Substack - well it hasn’t for me [Proton 🤔]. If we have problems with receiving emails then we can address that if/when they arise.

To reiterate - I don’t think having a hissy fit & leaving Substack is the answer. At least not yet …. One step at a time, keeping our toys in the pram, whilst planning ahead.

So now those of us whom Substack have decided to take private messaging away from, have to watch the numbers go up on this little sod, without being able to reply …

We can, however see who has messaged us plus the first few words. This could prompt the question “were they already a paid subscriber to someone? Or have they caved-in to the governments demands?”

Mind games eh …. ain’t they positively spiffing!

Thank you for making it this far down the page

All the best to you & yours 🙏