How Substack is redefining trust and safety by creating a new division of ‘standards’

For years, the dominant platforms of the internet have treated content moderation as both shield and scalpel — eulogized as “trust and safety,” enforced by a mix of algorithmic blunt force and human discretion, and backed by sprawling bureaucracies tasked with adjudicating whether a buttock or a stray word crosses the invisible line.

Substack, the subscription publishing platform, is taking a different tack. 

Rather than tinkering with the machinery of enforcement, it’s betting that the real problem lies not in the rules, but in the incentives — that a system built around advertising and virality will inevitably reward outrage, and that no amount of moderation will fix that. Its solution? Change the business model, and let trust between writers and readers do the work that moderation never could.

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