How Substack Handled My Content Violation Report
Documenting a content violation and how Substack handled it. (TL; DR - pretty well.)
On 26 July 2025, shortly after suspending a user due to a comment on “The Virus versus the Response,” I started receiving notifications for “likes” on a post I didn’t recognize.
Somehow, without my permission, my name had been added as author on an article dated 14 October 2023.
I contacted Substack support. After some initial confusion over what I was reporting, “Neo” from Substack Standards and Enforcement said, “We've determined that this content is a violation of our Content Guidelines and we've removed you as a contributor from the post. We have also taken action against this account so that it is not repeated in future. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions or concerns.”
Images of email correspondence below.
Neo didn’t specify which guideline was violated. Falsely crediting someone as a co-author amounts to “reverse plagiarism” and impersonation.
I appreciate Substack taking the complaint seriously and removing my name from the post.
UPDATE (16 Aug 2025): Neo from Substack Support made me aware of the “allow guest posts” switch under the Privacy options in Settings. This is different from the co-author functions in the Dashboard. I’m still unclear as to how someone could have added my name to an October 2023 article but have toggled the button to “off.”
