I Found Out My Work Is Being Aggregated to a Hostile, Right-Wing Hate Platform

Hey Everybody!Just a quick note today that I’ve been meaning to share. A few weeks ago, I noticed that a right-wing hate platform had started aggregating my work. What that means is that every time I publish here on Substack, a link appears on this other platform.It’s not like they’re stealing from me. My work is available for free and people can share the links wherever they want. It’s important to note they are not importing my text. Instead, they feature a thumbnail and when their users click on it, they’re directed to this newsletter.You’ve probably seen this kind of thing in a variety of online publications.What makes it weird is that this is an extremely hateful platform. I’m not going to give you the name because, frankly, I don’t want you going over there to read the comments. I’ve noticed that my profile picture appears on this page and I’m even starting to get “followers” over there (whatever that means). The weird part is that even though only the link appears on that page, quite a few of the thumbnails have comments. Some of them have several hundred comments.I think that’s weird because it suggests the users are seeing my post, clicking to come to my platform to read the story, then returning to leave comments.Either that, or they’re leaving comments in response to the title and my name (which is more likely).To me, this whole thing stinks of fake interaction. I’ve been doing this for a long time and I have a pretty good nose for when comments are not of human origin. The ones on this platform are particularly awful. They’re usually filled with offensive slurs, threats, and flat out lies.On the one hand, I don’t feel like there’s any use in visiting that page and reading those comments. On the other, it can provide a kind of glimpse into the social engineering that’s going on in our society today, particularly the intellectually dishonest arguments they’re using.The only reason I’m mentioning all this is that I’ve been inclined to troll them in my titles a little bit recently. If I feature words like “toxic Republicans” or “right-wing hate groups” I notice that I get huge traffic spikes coming from that page.I expect that the vast majority of those traffic spikes are from AI bots. However, if there are even a few liberal minded people using that platform, perhaps they’ll derive some comfort from my words.My original concept for this newsletter was simply to provide tutorials for progressive writers. I still have that as a mission statement. I think it’s important that everyone who feels compelled to share a story gets fair warning about the hostile way the internet tends to function.There’s also a possibility that you’ll start to see the comments section of this newsletter flooded with AI rage bots. If that happens, I might be forced to limit comments to paid subscribers (don’t worry, we’re not there yet).Those of you that have been following me for a long time have probably gotten a pretty good idea of what the landscape is like by now, but I wanted to give you fair warning. Also, I need to encourage all of you to fortify yourself against this kind of malicious social engineering. What they do is they take an article with a reasonable concept (like Medicare for all) and attack it with literally thousands of fake, hostile comments. This makes people inclined to think that our whole society is against this idea.I’m beginning to suspect that people are slowly developing a kind of mental filter for this sort of nonsense. When advertising was new, it was really effective, but once you’ve been lied to enough times you start to be suspicious of every ad you see.The same thing is happening with hostile internet and social media comments. I think that’s part of the reason why people are fleeing traditional news sources and seeking out independent journalists.Anyway, I just wanted to give you a heads up in case you start to see an uptick in strange comments here. As always, you can report bizarre comments you see and I’ll block the users.Thanks everybody! Stay safe and keep resisting!Also, nothing pisses of fascists like sponsoring this newsletter!You all make this newsletter happen! Thanks for your sponsorship! I have payment tiers starting at as little as twenty dollars a year.Upgrade at 30% offUpgrade at 40% offUpgrade at 50% offUpgrade at 60% offI'm so happy you're here, and I'm looking forward to sharing more thoughts with you tomorrow.My CoSchedule referral linkHere’s my referral link to my preferred headline analyzer tool. If you sign up through this, it’s another way to support this newsletter (thank you).I'd Rather Be Writing is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to I'd Rather Be Writing at walterrhein.substack.com/subscribe