I'm getting outta here

I HAVE MOVED -- FIND ME ON INDICATOR.MEDIA

[UPDATE MAY 20, 2025: I have now merged Faked Up with Craig Silverman’s “Digital Investigations. Find us on indicator.media]

Hi folks. I am moving Faked Up from Substack to Ghost.io.

The migration is a bit of a time suck but I’m hoping I can complete it before the next newsletter goes out on Wednesday.

If you’re a paid subscriber, your payments should continue to be processed regularly through Stripe. That said, you never know with these things and you should email me at mantzarlis@protonmail.com if you have any kind of issue.

You can read my reasons for moving below, but the important thing was to let you know in case you start getting strange notifications about my move from either Substack or Ghost.io in the next few hours and days.

See you on Wednesday, hopefully on the other side.

---

So, why are you leaving?

In May 2024, I had three days to set up Faked Up between the end of a very intense job at Google and the start of a completely new thing at Cornell Tech. I wanted to start publishing immediately to regain a public voice and to earn a little bit of extra revenue to compensate for my self-imposed pay cut.

In that compressed timeframe, Substack was the best option. Onboarding was easy and free — though you do hand over 10% of anything you earn on here — and readers are familiar with the platform.

I decided I’d revisit this topic within 12 months. Now, I see no reason to wait that long. Here’s why:

Nazis

I knew already then that this platform hosts neo-Nazis, which led to folks like Casey Newton to decamp to Ghost.io. Worse, some of those newsletters monetize on here. As I teach my students, the responsibility of a digital tool to moderate content goes up when (a) the content in question might cause physical harm (b) when the service functions as a platform by monetizing or recommending that content.

Conspiracy theorists

Last summer, I attended a happy hour for Substack “bestsellers” in Red Hook. While munching on a crab sandwich, I saw a handful of authors clustered around another Substack writer, whom I eventually recognized as a renowned anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist. Less than an hour into the event, I dragged my sorry self out of the bar and back to the ferry, regretting my life choices.

Disingenuous leadership

On Wednesday, the CEO of Substack wrote that “Elon Musk has been a vocal supporter of free speech. It’s no secret that we haven’t always seen eye to eye, but he deserves a lot of credit for advancing freedom of speech on X, before it was popular and in the face of fierce criticism and opposition.” He also endorsed another Substack author who fueled politically-motivated attacks against academics and experts on misinformation.

My perception is that the people who run this website aren’t ideologues. They appear to have a preference for openness that also aligns with their business motivations. For now, their support of free speech has manifested as cheap gimmicks. I’ll be curious to see, should they come under real pressure in the next four years for content hosted on this platform, whether they truly will hold the line.

---

So there you have it. I’m leaving.

I’m sharing my position for transparency, not applause. I don’t judge authors who choose to stay on Substack and I will continue to pay for their work.

Thank you for reading, and please be patient with me in the next few weeks as I adjust to a new service.