Twitter has limited users’ ability to embed tweets in posts on the online publishing platform Substack, leaving thousands of users in the dark. Twitter has limited promotion and visibility for tweets containing links to Substack posts, which has sparked outrage among users.

“We are disappointed that Twitter has chosen to limit the ability of writers to share their work. Writers should be able to share links to Substack or anywhere else they want “Substack’s founders, Chris Best, Hamish McKenzie, and Jairaj Seth, said as much.

“This abrupt change serves as an ongoing reminder of why creators deserve a model that puts them in charge, pays for great work, and protects the free press and free speech,” they added.

The Twitter change has created a major issue for Substack writers, who rely on Elon Musk’s platform to promote their newsletters.

“It does seem that Musk is making choices centered on his own financial interests and petty grievances – even if it makes Twitter objectively worse for users,” Judd Legum, author of the politics-focused newsletter Popular Information, told The Verge.
“If this trend continues, it will be difficult to justify continuing to invest my time in creating content for Twitter.”

“Writers’ livelihoods should not be tied to platforms where they don’t own their relationship with their audience and where the rules can change on a whim,” the Substack founders argue.

Musk is a known critic of mainstream media, and he recently labeled NPR’s account as “state-affiliated media.”