Bruce Danckwerts on On Substack

[Bruce Danckwerts]

I am certainly considering starting a Substack of my own (to share knowledge contained in the www.radio4pasa.com website which is information for Small Scale Farmers in Southern Africa). My prime motive is to share knowledge on Profitable and Sustainable Agriculture (the pasa in the website's name) with those farmers. Substack wouldn't reach that audience, but it might reach an audience that would be prepared to help sponsor the radio stations that broadcast the weekly programs. However, the reason I wanted to comment on this discussion is that it reminded me of the excitement over Google when it first started, and their Mission Statement, to "Do no Harm". Sooner rather than later the ability to make money got to them, and they started to manipulate things for profit rather than for the benefit of society. Similarly with Substack's commitment to Free Speech. It is easy to hold to that ideal while Substack content remains broadly responsible, but what happens when someone or some group starts to post content which does put minors or other vulnerable people at risk and there are calls from other concerned citizens to censor the content? Meta had to face this dilemma (and, if we are to believe them, have now decided that censorship doesn't work and so are dropping it). It will be interesting to see how Facebook and their other products evolve without any censorship over the coming months. I support Free Speech but on condition that one supplies one's true name and address. How Substack (or any other platform) enforces that I don't know, because of course any dark player could too easily provide a false identity - but I believe there is a solution to that problem waiting to be discovered. Bruce Danckwerts, CHOMA, Zambia