Somebody asked me how we should deal with toxic behavior on Notes.

Since we are still in the early days of creating our community here, I wanted to share some thoughts on this.

Here are 10 things I believe:

1. Despite many different attempts at censorship and moderation under different owners, Twitter has never stopped toxic behavior on the platform. Not even close.

2. In fact, when any individual was censored for whatever reason—whether fair or unfair—many others gained prominence by doing the exact same thing. You took out one bad actor, and a dozen more entered the battlefield.

3. This made clear that the platform itself was constructed in such a way as to amplify and reward toxic behavior. Once you grasp this, you see it everywhere—hashtags, trending topics, algorithmic placement, news coverage of Twitter spats, etc. I saw it in even my own Twitter posts, which are generally very civil, almost to an extreme, but if I let the slightest tinge of anger into a comment, it would start to go viral. Other people fed off the anger. I wasn’t happy with that (or with myself, in these cases), but that was the Twitter culture.

4. Twitter does NOT want to stop this, no matter what it says, because in an ad-driven model, engagement must be maximized. So all attempts to eliminate toxicity are just window-dressing. Twitter makes cash on out-of-control bad behavior—a riot always has a high level of ‘engagement’—it’s almost the fuel that runs the platform.

5. But the Twitter community itself is clearly to blame too. A huge group of people give momentum to bad actors on Twitter through likes, follows, and retweets. Some (or perhaps many) of these ‘followers’ may be dysfunctional themselves, but Twitter needs them because they are ‘engaged’ users. So we have a kind of co-dependency happening here. It’s a vicious circle.

6. There’s obviously a psychological phenomenon at play here. I believe René Girard’s theory of imitation and reciprocal violence explains a lot. In any cultural setting, people imitate each other, and on Twitter the successful role models are often the most toxic or outrageous, the least reasonable and most aggressive. This leads to endless shouting matches, where nothing is ever resolved, but insults and anger rule the day in a never-ending cycle—and thus generate the clicks Twitter needs to make money.

7. But other communities exist where different behavior patterns are celebrated, imitated and rewarded—and where such ways of engaging serve as role models for newcomers. We have all participated in healthy communities, and know what they’re like. We need them for our own psychic health and sense of wholehess. That can happen here at Substack Notes—but the way we do that is NOT by imitating bad actors or responding to toxicity with our own worst behavior. We ARE the change we want, just like the saying goes.

8. We are in the early stages of establishing a community culture here, and over time certain ways of engaging and dialoguing will emerge as the preferred ‘tone’ of the Notes platform. We absolutely can choose for civility, decency, and constructive engagement. This is entirely within our power. Toxic people will never go away, but if you don’t give them fuel they soon burn down to a flicker.  

9. In the opening weeks of Notes, when it was still in beta testing, the positive ways of engaging were the only things I saw here. But I’ve recently seen people come here from Twitter and assume it’s the same game, with the same system of rewards and stardom. But, remember, our engagement with ‘influencers’ of this sort is the actual reward they are seeking. It’s amazing how fast behavior changes when the reinforcements disappear. So we have more control than you might think.

10. I’m choosing to engage in good dialogue here, and focus on other with a similar mindset (whether or not they share my opinions and worldview). You’re invited to join us. In fact, you’re strongly encouraged to do so—because the alternative is obviously worse. I already see signs of this better way of engagement emerging here, and want to encourage them. That’s why I’m sharing these comments.