We knew from at least 2020 that this payment processor problem could eventually harm SubStack.
I envision a time when SubStack will have to charge the writers up front for the bandwidth, rather than take a percentage of earnings, in order to maintain the variety of authors.
The sad thing is that some of those freebie email providers have already decided that people don't need to see SubStack, but no one thinks they should pay for a private email provider. If Yahoo, etc. disappear the SubStack newsletters, what else do they remove?
Learn to trade services and materials with your neighbors, if you want to be more adaptable to what's coming your way.
Indeed, email in many cases is far from immune to censorship. We need to remember... When something is offered to you for free, Chances are, YOU are the product, not the customer.
I've been using Protonmail myself, their VPN too, which I pay a subscription for.
Yes, I did have my choice in this confirmed by a guy, Glenn Meder, that does a lot of research and writes about internet security/privacy issues and solutions. That is not to say mine is the only solution, there are others too, but people need to look into this stuff so they can make an informed choice. The bottom line is, one needs to de-google and probably microsoft, apple, amazon and a bunch of others I've forgotten to mention.
Virtual machine? Is that one of those OSs that comes on a thumb drive and you just plug and play? I was actually looking at something like that just a few days ago.
Yes, I was dual booting Ubuntu on my windows machine... Jeez, probably a dozen years ago. Ubuntu was pretty new at the time. It was pretty user friendly as soon as it came out. I'm sure it's probably even better now. Then my computer took a crap and I just got a new one loaded with MS and called it a day. It takes a little more effort to run a Linux OS. I had gotten a few more frustrations added to my life about that time so I went back to doing things the easy way.
I do still think about starting in to Linux again sometimes. Trouble is, a lot of time has passed since I quit and I've forgotten an awful lot of what and how I used to do things. That might make it a little more of a challenge now.
Just would like to note--even when you pay for something, whether handsomely or modestly, YOU are still most likely the product. I have been shocked at the organizations who think they are entitled to pass on my personal info. Also--anything electronic can and will be tracked.
Startmail and Hushmail (one I use for commercial transactions / for receiving the inevitable junk mail that follows; the other for more personal communications).
I was thinking of getting startmail. Do you like it? Is it user friendly? I have a proton acct I no longer use as I just couldn’t get used to how it functions
Pros and cons (like anything). It's from Europe, which appears to have better user privacy laws than the U.S. (such are basically non-existent here).
Works pretty seamlessly, like any other email program (no complaints there).
I like to forward articles to a list of certain friends and acquaintances (e.g., sending this Dr. Malone column). Not a huge list - well under 100 - but Startmail appears to be pretty aggressive in flagging outgoing BCC's over a certain number as spam. That is likely not an issue for most people, but worth mentioning if relevant to you.
I started paying for e-mail several years ago myself. I personally use the Australian cloud based e-mail provider fastmail. For about $150 per year they keep me and my wife connected and don’t scan our e-mail. I can also create aliases, a few additional accounts, have lots of storage, and have access to cell phone apps to read your e-mail. Long ago I was the geologist who had to learn unix system management because no ine wlse would. I also set up a small unix based e-mail system. This was in the 90s so setting it up was a nightmare fueled by a boss, who needed it right away. The sendmail client manual was thicker than most telephone books of the time, but I got used to the flexibility and now enjoy the flexibility that fastmail offers.
Well-followed truth-Sayers all seem to be having censorship problems. What if they formed a co-op, bought their own servers collectively? Amazon and a few others have capacity, but users would then become like renters to landlords who can cancel the lease after the user is all moved in.
Two or three weeks ago, Dr. Eades moved his "The Arrow" from substack to another platform. His motivation was problems he found in technical aspects of substack and a preference for the alternative as he understood it.
It appears there are already alternatives. And now there will be incentives for others.
Let's not be shifting responsibility for bad behavior onto people who don't deserve it. We (commenters) are doing nothing wrong here. The wrong doing is all coming from Stripe and it appears Substack may be complicit rather than just naive, which is becoming more apparent as Doc digs deeper into the who's who and what not of the matter.
I haven't been here a long time but from what I see there are a lot of ideas that get floated around here that might not see the light of day if there is no place for group conversation. That, it seems to me, is important.
It seems we need to find some one with conservative leanings who has their own system of servers. Perhaps a conversation with the people at Rumble might open up some possibilities. There is a lot of blogging software out there with commenting capabilities, so that shouldn't be much of a problem.
That said, Doc, I do hope you've got all your stuff backed up on something you own yourself that isn't easily hackable.
The wrong doing to stripe is from government and pharma. You KNOW stripe is being pressured just like social media companies were pressured as evidenced by today's supreme Court hearing.
I haven't seen the SCOTUS hearing yet, so can't comment on that.
I wouldn't care to guess if it's Stripe that's out of line here or if they're being prodded by the gov't/pharma. Doesn't matter to me. What matters is, they are not standing for free speech. I have understood they have some connection to google so it's not much of a stretch to expect them to wander off the free speech reservation.
Yes, they are absolutely violating free speech which includes free (legal) commerce. However, they will cause much damage to true democracy and free speech before the judicial system can overturn. The govmt, financial systems, and corporates are continually and aggressively violating our constitutional rights. Note that it's BOTH left/right Democrats/Republicans.
That would be a good thing. The next question one might want to ask is, who's hosting the website. It's not easy these days to be sure who is batting for which team.
I wonder if Mercola's decision to offer refund all paid subscriptions to SubStack is based on getting a little notice from Stripe. He's leaving the SubStack open, though. He has given Stripe a lot of work to do. The SubStack, as a non-income producer, is a storage and processing heavyweight.
I can afford to lose the cost of a year of Substack; in fact, I will lose the cost of another subscription - that of Mattias Desmet, who has posted 1 entry to his paid accounts in several months. I will look for Dr. Malone to find another platform.
Money orders are even better. No nosy banks prying into your checkbook transactions. You can pay cash for a money order for about $1 at Walmart or USPS.
The only thing I don’t really like is sending a personal check via mail. I experienced check fraud in Dec 2022 and things were a nightmare for at least 3 months
I prefer sending checks too Richard, however I want to find a safe parallel bank to open an account just for the purpose of paying for things like Dr. Malone's legal fund and candidate election donations. Does anybody know of a bank that fits with our Constitutional right to privacy?
Thank you Jean, I will look into that. I did check out "Old Glory Bank" they are a parallel economy bank, however at this time they do not have an option for a checking account.
Yes, perhaps you could dispense with paid subscriptions on substack and publish for free, and current subscribers like myself can mail money orders to you directly.
And substack can eat cow manure and die.
Also, please look at Old Glory Bank and perhaps we could Zelle subscription/dinationmoney to you. 😍
I did manage to make a one time donation. I can appreciate that there will likely be an ongoing need. As I'm able could likely make as needed or quarterly donations. These matters are VERY IMPORTANT for all of us! It would be very helpful to
have an ongoing access to make additional donations. Let us know if there will be a way.
Cheques are a bit tricky for those of us overseas. And you’d have the hassle of your bank having to settle cheques in foreign currencies.
Maybe make your Substack free, and use a different payment processor linked to your own website. Give Send Go? Sounds like there are others. Hopefully ones that don’t gouge you. I hate most payment processors. Never use PayPal. I’d simply send payment by EFT from my bank to yours, but the US is so restrictive, and doesn’t participate in the network. I mean, I can send direct to a bank in India (from Australia), but not to one in the US.
Anyway, you wouldn’t have to give the 10% to Substack anymore.
Re-post your ‘Stacks to your website. Rumble is launching a new Cloud service soon, so let them host you in future. Keep cross-posting to X. It has greater reach than Substack anyway.
I like this idea very much. I thought Substack was safe but they failed in the banking department. I had never paid attention to "Stripe" , Substack needs to end that relationship ASAP.
Stripe is an evil company. I have first hand experience.
Recently someone hacked their site and we started getting 1000s of receipts for transactions all less than a dollar. Stripe put the money in our account and we needed to tell them to block the Bangladesh website that had hacked their site. We opened a trouble ticket with them and they refused to refund the money. None of this used our site, only stripe servers. Stripe didn't detect this attack coming from another country. They still refuse to discuss it with us to this day. We are not the only business that has had this problem. Others are on the hook for transaction charges totaling over $70,000 and stripe is suing them for those charges.
This was inevitable...however, if for some reason they're able to implement these evil measures, there are many other ways we can support you financially..there are banks who don't play these games. You can drop the pay wall on Substack to continue writing and informing and we can financially support you through other means.
Mar 18·edited Mar 18Liked by Robert W Malone MD, MS
You know what really sucks, as a conservative, any little pleasantry that you seem to get from anything in this country, turns into a war on your first amendment rights. You Dr. Malone have built this platform which has taken an extreme amount of time, effort, and heart to get it to this point of success. In one swoop a communist totalitarian company, Stripe, that knows they are going to cause huge waves with their new tyrannical rules, are forcing people to make a decision. Do I want to submit to their bullshit or live without this great platform. I have to give it to the communist tyrants, they relentlessly just can’t leave people alone. They push and push and poke and poke. From the beginning of Covid I have used this platform as therapy. I must be honest with all of you, you have all become like family to me, I have found that I like to write, I like to read!!! I’m not saying I write well but I do enjoy it!!! One of the problems I see with finding an alternative, again I will be honest, and maybe there is one, but sub stack as a platform is really set up well to promote interesting people with ideas that people want to hear and write about. The great negative to sub stack for doing this is they will force people to create alternatives, I just don’t think that will happen quickly. But as they say where there is a demand there will be someone bright enough to come up with a new solution. So I am in with you, fight to stay as anonymous as possible to Stripe and I have donated to your defense fund. I pray for your success. J.Goodrich
"they relentlessly just can’t leave people alone" yes, it is a type of sickness, a voracity for power and control, a hunger that never can be satisfied until everything has been consumed. Scary as #ell.
As usual so well said James! I am with you Doc no matter what! Will be donating to your defense fund as well! Stay strong Doc as your voice is truly INVALUABLE! God bless you!
You always seem to find the words, James. I get sick to my stomach every time another stab at our freedom surfaces but cannot always articulate my feelings. That’s why I love to read my fellow conservatives writings on Dr Malone’s columns. So many others can write what I am feeling! Keep it up, please!
Thank you Barbara, it’s hard to not have such mixed feelings with everything going on including sub stack allowing their collections company to gather such intrusive information on people like us. It reminds me of the Jefferson quote, “When people fear their government there is tyranny, when a government fear the people there is liberty”. So I must have faith that speaking gives us power. When we become silent then we become subjects.
Thank you Cheryl, but there are so many brilliant people on Dr. Malones sub stack I just do my best to try to keep up with all of you!! I really hope that Stripe backs off. I can not think of any reason for them wanting this info except for nefarious motives and reasons.
You’re Welcome! I doubt Stripe will back off, so Substack needs to make a decision about their relationship with them and I’m not too hopeful on that either. Yes, so many brilliant people on here so I’m feeling a bit sad, if we lose that.
You put your finger on it, Lisa. This is not mere villainy—it's an act of treachery. Dante reserved the lowest rung of hell for those who betray the friends who trusted them.
Stripe reached out to our BHRT clinic a week ago and did a full review of our workflow for telemedicine encounters including an ask for all of our providers credentials and licenses, including DEA registration info. They also wanted to know details regarding any relationships we have with pharmacies, a sampling of any questionnaire’s we utilize as part of telemedicine consultations, details regarding our HIPAA compliance, Synchronous video capabilities, how quickly we are able to schedule patients, our plans to expand, details of how scripts are filled, etc.
We are cognizant of telemedicine’s potential to be abused by unscrupulous clinicians or pharmacies, but it did feel like it was a bit of an over reach for our payment facilitator to be gathering information that seems more appropriate for review by our State’s Board of Medicine. Under who’s guidance did they receive the parameters to evaluate our answers and documentation? They are a payment facilitator, not a medical regulator!
The only two questions of the 15 required that seemed appropriate for their role in our business was the questions on our refund policy and our transaction fraud protection processes.
Like Dr. Malone, we can’t afford to lose the only electronic payment provider that is fully integrated with our EHR. Since we have 5 years of good relations with them, we proceeded and everything went fine with our “review”. However, we are in the alternative medicine space and with all that has transpired the last 4 years and now with Dr. Malone’s report above, we think this is likely the first of many future intrusions by private firms on behalf of public regulators.
Having your income potentially cut off while you mount an expensive defense of a dubious civil matter is a potentially devastating tool for self censorship or outright destruction of competing thoughts, ideas, or medical therapies.
"Locals," an entity similar to SubStack that is owned/hosted by Rumble or the company that owns Rumble.
Mentioned Berenson earlier - he was approached to move his SubStack, "Unreported Truths," over to Locals.
I dare say that this audience/readership would follow. I haven’t checked out Locals, yet, as I’m already overextended with the info I’m trying to pay attention to. But, one data point can be interesting, when similar data keeps recurring…
Turns out, I have an account on Locals - went to peruse as a guest, if that was possible and a login prompt popped up from my password manager. Who’da’thunk 🤷♀️
Yes, functionally, SybStack is better.
I have enough on my plate,,small as it is, without going in search of alternatives.
Would it make sense to move to Locals, which is owned by Rumble? I'm already paid-subscribing on Locals for Bret Weinstein and Kim Iversen, so maybe that's the new dissident Substack.
Dan Bongino's payment processor was horrible to us. It was called Fortis. No offense to him, but they charged us for 2 months of non-use (we never received the equipment we needed to even take a credit card) and refused to refund the money. I hope Revere is worth our time, we are a small mom and pop and so far only Square has worked for us.
He was part of Parler as well, and he got reamed by Slammazon because of their hosting. He caved in and gave access to subscribers info, which is why most people left Parler during the shutdown.
I looked at locals and it appears that Stripe is their payment processor. They also have an internal currency called coins which you can purchase at 10 per dollar.
This is just another harbinger of more to come...the Feds are learning to love the electronic payments systems as they have companies willing to work in conjunction with them to target certain citizens that don't support the narrative of the ruling party (communists aka democrats). I'm not a writer, never heard of Substack until I started following Dr. Malone on his journey of discovery of the corruption in the big pharma arena and as he expanded his knowledge to all the other corruption that is rampant. Short story is he is doing the right thing of; 1) notifying us his reader base, 2) hiring a good experienced attorney, 3) asking for help, and 4) reality is that we need a parallel economy/platforms. For now I suspect Stripe is in pause, trying to determine what to do with Dr. Malone...corruption works best in the dark, and Dr.RM is putting light on it, so they are figuring out what to do. I've invested millions in legal fees over the years on intellectual property/business issues. Delicate balance right now, if he drops substack, then they win without a fight, and they go to the next person and do the same thing. The issue with fighting stripe/substack, is it costs a lot of money/time/stress. My gut read is a leopard doesn't change its spots, correct...even if you get a reprieve from substack/stripe, it is temporary...evil is patient...they just keep grinding away. One way or another, we all need better truthful platforms, and sooner or later even they may get compromised as they dance with the devil to grow their business, or, they unwittingly bring in an investment partner that starts taking them in a new direction. Very clandestine. The fight is not hopeless, if we give up, then it is over...it is never over when we continue to fight. The left provides the illusion of freedom. A great movie is The Illusionist.
Thank you for sharing this alarming news. I have not heard this from any other Substack author.
I was not aware of the monopoly agreement between Substack and Stripe, and cannot imagine why such an arrangement should exist.
In return for their 10%, I cannot think of any reason why Substack cannot just pay their authors directly instead of via an intermediary.
It is also alarming that Substack is emplying a "Head of Politics". Why? This is beginning to sound like the extra luggage type staff that cleared out of Twitter when Elon Musk moved in.
And it is alarming that Stripe is demanding past transaction history. This is highly intrusive and cannot be justified on any KYC basis.
As a paying subscriber, I am happy to divert my subscription fee to your legal defence fund.
Looks to me like an alternative to substack is in order
Dr. Malone / Substack owners might want to look into Parallel Economy, the payment processor that Dan Bongino has switched to and recommends.
https://www.paralleleconomy.com/we-are-john-galt/
We knew from at least 2020 that this payment processor problem could eventually harm SubStack.
I envision a time when SubStack will have to charge the writers up front for the bandwidth, rather than take a percentage of earnings, in order to maintain the variety of authors.
The sad thing is that some of those freebie email providers have already decided that people don't need to see SubStack, but no one thinks they should pay for a private email provider. If Yahoo, etc. disappear the SubStack newsletters, what else do they remove?
Learn to trade services and materials with your neighbors, if you want to be more adaptable to what's coming your way.
Indeed, email in many cases is far from immune to censorship. We need to remember... When something is offered to you for free, Chances are, YOU are the product, not the customer.
I've been using Protonmail myself, their VPN too, which I pay a subscription for.
In my view, Protonmail is worth $ so far. They're expanding their product line quite a bit.
Yes, I did have my choice in this confirmed by a guy, Glenn Meder, that does a lot of research and writes about internet security/privacy issues and solutions. That is not to say mine is the only solution, there are others too, but people need to look into this stuff so they can make an informed choice. The bottom line is, one needs to de-google and probably microsoft, apple, amazon and a bunch of others I've forgotten to mention.
I’m playing with a Virtual machine running Ubuntu OS. I think my next computer will run that instead of Microsoft or Apple operating systems.
Virtual machine? Is that one of those OSs that comes on a thumb drive and you just plug and play? I was actually looking at something like that just a few days ago.
Yes, I was dual booting Ubuntu on my windows machine... Jeez, probably a dozen years ago. Ubuntu was pretty new at the time. It was pretty user friendly as soon as it came out. I'm sure it's probably even better now. Then my computer took a crap and I just got a new one loaded with MS and called it a day. It takes a little more effort to run a Linux OS. I had gotten a few more frustrations added to my life about that time so I went back to doing things the easy way.
I do still think about starting in to Linux again sometimes. Trouble is, a lot of time has passed since I quit and I've forgotten an awful lot of what and how I used to do things. That might make it a little more of a challenge now.
Just would like to note--even when you pay for something, whether handsomely or modestly, YOU are still most likely the product. I have been shocked at the organizations who think they are entitled to pass on my personal info. Also--anything electronic can and will be tracked.
Startmail and Hushmail (one I use for commercial transactions / for receiving the inevitable junk mail that follows; the other for more personal communications).
I was thinking of getting startmail. Do you like it? Is it user friendly? I have a proton acct I no longer use as I just couldn’t get used to how it functions
Pros and cons (like anything). It's from Europe, which appears to have better user privacy laws than the U.S. (such are basically non-existent here).
Works pretty seamlessly, like any other email program (no complaints there).
I like to forward articles to a list of certain friends and acquaintances (e.g., sending this Dr. Malone column). Not a huge list - well under 100 - but Startmail appears to be pretty aggressive in flagging outgoing BCC's over a certain number as spam. That is likely not an issue for most people, but worth mentioning if relevant to you.
Thank you. This is very helpful. I don’t BCC too often, but that’s good to know.
I started paying for e-mail several years ago myself. I personally use the Australian cloud based e-mail provider fastmail. For about $150 per year they keep me and my wife connected and don’t scan our e-mail. I can also create aliases, a few additional accounts, have lots of storage, and have access to cell phone apps to read your e-mail. Long ago I was the geologist who had to learn unix system management because no ine wlse would. I also set up a small unix based e-mail system. This was in the 90s so setting it up was a nightmare fueled by a boss, who needed it right away. The sendmail client manual was thicker than most telephone books of the time, but I got used to the flexibility and now enjoy the flexibility that fastmail offers.
Yep, dead on Marcie.
Elon Musk needs another "outlet"!
Well-followed truth-Sayers all seem to be having censorship problems. What if they formed a co-op, bought their own servers collectively? Amazon and a few others have capacity, but users would then become like renters to landlords who can cancel the lease after the user is all moved in.
Two or three weeks ago, Dr. Eades moved his "The Arrow" from substack to another platform. His motivation was problems he found in technical aspects of substack and a preference for the alternative as he understood it.
It appears there are already alternatives. And now there will be incentives for others.
I think so. Maybe move to Rumble. I think they also use parallel economy
thanks, saved the web site. I can send money straight to the good doctor, and ignore the rabid leftist destroying substack
Careful now....
Let's not be shifting responsibility for bad behavior onto people who don't deserve it. We (commenters) are doing nothing wrong here. The wrong doing is all coming from Stripe and it appears Substack may be complicit rather than just naive, which is becoming more apparent as Doc digs deeper into the who's who and what not of the matter.
I haven't been here a long time but from what I see there are a lot of ideas that get floated around here that might not see the light of day if there is no place for group conversation. That, it seems to me, is important.
It seems we need to find some one with conservative leanings who has their own system of servers. Perhaps a conversation with the people at Rumble might open up some possibilities. There is a lot of blogging software out there with commenting capabilities, so that shouldn't be much of a problem.
That said, Doc, I do hope you've got all your stuff backed up on something you own yourself that isn't easily hackable.
Hey Oldguy52. Speak for yourself !
You may be doing nothing wrong here, but I ALWAYS AM doing something wrong.
Just ask my wife, and she'll vouch for me !
T.
8-)
if you are not mocking rabid leftist perverts and other democrat cult vermin, you are not typing hard enough
I'm sure my Bride would concur with yours if she could express her thoughts as she'd like to.
The wrong doing to stripe is from government and pharma. You KNOW stripe is being pressured just like social media companies were pressured as evidenced by today's supreme Court hearing.
I haven't seen the SCOTUS hearing yet, so can't comment on that.
I wouldn't care to guess if it's Stripe that's out of line here or if they're being prodded by the gov't/pharma. Doesn't matter to me. What matters is, they are not standing for free speech. I have understood they have some connection to google so it's not much of a stretch to expect them to wander off the free speech reservation.
Yes, they are absolutely violating free speech which includes free (legal) commerce. However, they will cause much damage to true democracy and free speech before the judicial system can overturn. The govmt, financial systems, and corporates are continually and aggressively violating our constitutional rights. Note that it's BOTH left/right Democrats/Republicans.
I’m with you. If we can’t comment then our voices are going unheard and that’s something we’ve been fighting.
That would be a good thing. The next question one might want to ask is, who's hosting the website. It's not easy these days to be sure who is batting for which team.
Dr. Mercola is quitting this tripe.
I wonder if Mercola's decision to offer refund all paid subscriptions to SubStack is based on getting a little notice from Stripe. He's leaving the SubStack open, though. He has given Stripe a lot of work to do. The SubStack, as a non-income producer, is a storage and processing heavyweight.
I didn’t make the connection till you said it, but now I think you’re onto to something!
Hopefully his move is ‘noticeable’.
Good question- I also don’t want to see the doctors, authors, & subscribers put in another “tough-spot” - which way do we go?
Ditto. Bite the bullet, baby.
I can afford to lose the cost of a year of Substack; in fact, I will lose the cost of another subscription - that of Mattias Desmet, who has posted 1 entry to his paid accounts in several months. I will look for Dr. Malone to find another platform.
This is outrageous.
Back to the future.....please arrange a PO Box to which checks can be sent.
good idea, thanks
I prefer to send checks instead of using cards.
Money orders are even better. No nosy banks prying into your checkbook transactions. You can pay cash for a money order for about $1 at Walmart or USPS.
We ALL need to go back to snail mail. Boycott Stripes!
The only thing I don’t really like is sending a personal check via mail. I experienced check fraud in Dec 2022 and things were a nightmare for at least 3 months
Use a money order--available at most supermarkets, Walmarts, the Post Office, some convenience stores.
I prefer sending checks too Richard, however I want to find a safe parallel bank to open an account just for the purpose of paying for things like Dr. Malone's legal fund and candidate election donations. Does anybody know of a bank that fits with our Constitutional right to privacy?
Old Glory Bank
I have no idea for sure but would a credit union acct serve as a viable option?
Thank you Jean, I will look into that. I did check out "Old Glory Bank" they are a parallel economy bank, however at this time they do not have an option for a checking account.
I've looked into them, briefly. Maybe an option for my account, as I have developed a dislike for BofA.
I don’t. Likely there are none anymore. In this age of fascism everything has been captured by deep/administrative state tentacles
https://oldglorybank.com/
Do they issue a debit card?
Check out their website. They do it all.
I’ve wondered the same and my guess is there isn’t one yet
Yes, perhaps you could dispense with paid subscriptions on substack and publish for free, and current subscribers like myself can mail money orders to you directly.
And substack can eat cow manure and die.
Also, please look at Old Glory Bank and perhaps we could Zelle subscription/dinationmoney to you. 😍
I did manage to make a one time donation. I can appreciate that there will likely be an ongoing need. As I'm able could likely make as needed or quarterly donations. These matters are VERY IMPORTANT for all of us! It would be very helpful to
have an ongoing access to make additional donations. Let us know if there will be a way.
Yes a physical address we can send checks to! We want to help you in this fight!!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Cheques are a bit tricky for those of us overseas. And you’d have the hassle of your bank having to settle cheques in foreign currencies.
Maybe make your Substack free, and use a different payment processor linked to your own website. Give Send Go? Sounds like there are others. Hopefully ones that don’t gouge you. I hate most payment processors. Never use PayPal. I’d simply send payment by EFT from my bank to yours, but the US is so restrictive, and doesn’t participate in the network. I mean, I can send direct to a bank in India (from Australia), but not to one in the US.
Anyway, you wouldn’t have to give the 10% to Substack anymore.
Re-post your ‘Stacks to your website. Rumble is launching a new Cloud service soon, so let them host you in future. Keep cross-posting to X. It has greater reach than Substack anyway.
I like this idea very much. I thought Substack was safe but they failed in the banking department. I had never paid attention to "Stripe" , Substack needs to end that relationship ASAP.
I think if Substack is truly committed to free speech etc, they should transition to Parallel Economy and sever their relationship with Stripe.
That sounds like old fashioned common sense. Just bypass stripe altogether.
exactly
I like this idea!
Not a bad idea.
And maybe give send go for those that prefer a card payment form
Stripe is an evil company. I have first hand experience.
Recently someone hacked their site and we started getting 1000s of receipts for transactions all less than a dollar. Stripe put the money in our account and we needed to tell them to block the Bangladesh website that had hacked their site. We opened a trouble ticket with them and they refused to refund the money. None of this used our site, only stripe servers. Stripe didn't detect this attack coming from another country. They still refuse to discuss it with us to this day. We are not the only business that has had this problem. Others are on the hook for transaction charges totaling over $70,000 and stripe is suing them for those charges.
DocM: Berenson raised this issue last week.
Collaboration?
Julie Kelly
Any number of free speech content providers on SubStack - class action.
yes, there are a number of responses which are now being triggered by this action.
This was inevitable...however, if for some reason they're able to implement these evil measures, there are many other ways we can support you financially..there are banks who don't play these games. You can drop the pay wall on Substack to continue writing and informing and we can financially support you through other means.
Parler had issues, and drove conservatives away after it was made public our words woukd be reported to the evil empire, and our identities disclosed.
I dumped amazon and paypal right then and there
You know what really sucks, as a conservative, any little pleasantry that you seem to get from anything in this country, turns into a war on your first amendment rights. You Dr. Malone have built this platform which has taken an extreme amount of time, effort, and heart to get it to this point of success. In one swoop a communist totalitarian company, Stripe, that knows they are going to cause huge waves with their new tyrannical rules, are forcing people to make a decision. Do I want to submit to their bullshit or live without this great platform. I have to give it to the communist tyrants, they relentlessly just can’t leave people alone. They push and push and poke and poke. From the beginning of Covid I have used this platform as therapy. I must be honest with all of you, you have all become like family to me, I have found that I like to write, I like to read!!! I’m not saying I write well but I do enjoy it!!! One of the problems I see with finding an alternative, again I will be honest, and maybe there is one, but sub stack as a platform is really set up well to promote interesting people with ideas that people want to hear and write about. The great negative to sub stack for doing this is they will force people to create alternatives, I just don’t think that will happen quickly. But as they say where there is a demand there will be someone bright enough to come up with a new solution. So I am in with you, fight to stay as anonymous as possible to Stripe and I have donated to your defense fund. I pray for your success. J.Goodrich
"they relentlessly just can’t leave people alone" yes, it is a type of sickness, a voracity for power and control, a hunger that never can be satisfied until everything has been consumed. Scary as #ell.
As usual so well said James! I am with you Doc no matter what! Will be donating to your defense fund as well! Stay strong Doc as your voice is truly INVALUABLE! God bless you!
You always seem to find the words, James. I get sick to my stomach every time another stab at our freedom surfaces but cannot always articulate my feelings. That’s why I love to read my fellow conservatives writings on Dr Malone’s columns. So many others can write what I am feeling! Keep it up, please!
Thank you Barbara, it’s hard to not have such mixed feelings with everything going on including sub stack allowing their collections company to gather such intrusive information on people like us. It reminds me of the Jefferson quote, “When people fear their government there is tyranny, when a government fear the people there is liberty”. So I must have faith that speaking gives us power. When we become silent then we become subjects.
I share how you feel. Substack has helped keep my sanity and it’s like extended family here. Btw, you are a great writer!
Thank you Cheryl, but there are so many brilliant people on Dr. Malones sub stack I just do my best to try to keep up with all of you!! I really hope that Stripe backs off. I can not think of any reason for them wanting this info except for nefarious motives and reasons.
You’re Welcome! I doubt Stripe will back off, so Substack needs to make a decision about their relationship with them and I’m not too hopeful on that either. Yes, so many brilliant people on here so I’m feeling a bit sad, if we lose that.
I would be very sad as well…
Thank you Terri always think of you for your boldness!! I’m still holding out hope somehow this works out.
Et tu, Substack?
To paraphrase the Ides of March "I have come, not to praise Substack but to bury it."
Heady times we are living in here on the eve of destruction.
You put your finger on it, Lisa. This is not mere villainy—it's an act of treachery. Dante reserved the lowest rung of hell for those who betray the friends who trusted them.
Love your comment Lisa!!
Interesting, but sadly not a surprise…
Stripe reached out to our BHRT clinic a week ago and did a full review of our workflow for telemedicine encounters including an ask for all of our providers credentials and licenses, including DEA registration info. They also wanted to know details regarding any relationships we have with pharmacies, a sampling of any questionnaire’s we utilize as part of telemedicine consultations, details regarding our HIPAA compliance, Synchronous video capabilities, how quickly we are able to schedule patients, our plans to expand, details of how scripts are filled, etc.
We are cognizant of telemedicine’s potential to be abused by unscrupulous clinicians or pharmacies, but it did feel like it was a bit of an over reach for our payment facilitator to be gathering information that seems more appropriate for review by our State’s Board of Medicine. Under who’s guidance did they receive the parameters to evaluate our answers and documentation? They are a payment facilitator, not a medical regulator!
The only two questions of the 15 required that seemed appropriate for their role in our business was the questions on our refund policy and our transaction fraud protection processes.
Like Dr. Malone, we can’t afford to lose the only electronic payment provider that is fully integrated with our EHR. Since we have 5 years of good relations with them, we proceeded and everything went fine with our “review”. However, we are in the alternative medicine space and with all that has transpired the last 4 years and now with Dr. Malone’s report above, we think this is likely the first of many future intrusions by private firms on behalf of public regulators.
Having your income potentially cut off while you mount an expensive defense of a dubious civil matter is a potentially devastating tool for self censorship or outright destruction of competing thoughts, ideas, or medical therapies.
God Bless Dr. Malone!
Doctor Malone, I'm like the sandpiper. I usually test the waters before I participate in any group, venue or organization.
That being said, this is the ONLY SUBSTACK that I am a paid subscriber.
I'm now worried about how this TERMS OF SERVICE will affect the sharing of my personal financial purchases and information?
If the information of your subscribers will be impacted, then IMHO, I think 🤔 that a CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT is in order!!!
Looks like it’s time to find a new home. I believe that many have already departed sub-stack (I didn’t know why but perhaps i now have the answer)
"Locals," an entity similar to SubStack that is owned/hosted by Rumble or the company that owns Rumble.
Mentioned Berenson earlier - he was approached to move his SubStack, "Unreported Truths," over to Locals.
I dare say that this audience/readership would follow. I haven’t checked out Locals, yet, as I’m already overextended with the info I’m trying to pay attention to. But, one data point can be interesting, when similar data keeps recurring…
Good idea! I’m on Locals. It has its downsides functionality-wise but I’m on it more and more these days
Turns out, I have an account on Locals - went to peruse as a guest, if that was possible and a login prompt popped up from my password manager. Who’da’thunk 🤷♀️
Yes, functionally, SybStack is better.
I have enough on my plate,,small as it is, without going in search of alternatives.
Hey doc.
If you stay on substack, email me your address, and ill mail you a check or cash direct.
If you dont take cash, how about some bags of emu or horse feed? Or i can swing by and clean out a few stalls of horse poop.
I have no issue going back to bartering, should it be necessary
Would it make sense to move to Locals, which is owned by Rumble? I'm already paid-subscribing on Locals for Bret Weinstein and Kim Iversen, so maybe that's the new dissident Substack.
Dan Bongino, also involved with Rumble (and Locals) has a payment processing system aptly named "Parallel Economy."
Dan Bongino's payment processor was horrible to us. It was called Fortis. No offense to him, but they charged us for 2 months of non-use (we never received the equipment we needed to even take a credit card) and refused to refund the money. I hope Revere is worth our time, we are a small mom and pop and so far only Square has worked for us.
He was part of Parler as well, and he got reamed by Slammazon because of their hosting. He caved in and gave access to subscribers info, which is why most people left Parler during the shutdown.
That’s how I learned about all mentioned. Been following him for almost 5 years. He’s warned about Stripe
I looked at locals and it appears that Stripe is their payment processor. They also have an internal currency called coins which you can purchase at 10 per dollar.
Well damn. Let's just send the Malones a check in the mail then.
Or money order to keep eyeballs off your account number while it's in transit.
I subscribed to TTV on Local. The Coins were used to allow the payer to add comments. Jumped off that sight after the 2022 election losses.
This is just another harbinger of more to come...the Feds are learning to love the electronic payments systems as they have companies willing to work in conjunction with them to target certain citizens that don't support the narrative of the ruling party (communists aka democrats). I'm not a writer, never heard of Substack until I started following Dr. Malone on his journey of discovery of the corruption in the big pharma arena and as he expanded his knowledge to all the other corruption that is rampant. Short story is he is doing the right thing of; 1) notifying us his reader base, 2) hiring a good experienced attorney, 3) asking for help, and 4) reality is that we need a parallel economy/platforms. For now I suspect Stripe is in pause, trying to determine what to do with Dr. Malone...corruption works best in the dark, and Dr.RM is putting light on it, so they are figuring out what to do. I've invested millions in legal fees over the years on intellectual property/business issues. Delicate balance right now, if he drops substack, then they win without a fight, and they go to the next person and do the same thing. The issue with fighting stripe/substack, is it costs a lot of money/time/stress. My gut read is a leopard doesn't change its spots, correct...even if you get a reprieve from substack/stripe, it is temporary...evil is patient...they just keep grinding away. One way or another, we all need better truthful platforms, and sooner or later even they may get compromised as they dance with the devil to grow their business, or, they unwittingly bring in an investment partner that starts taking them in a new direction. Very clandestine. The fight is not hopeless, if we give up, then it is over...it is never over when we continue to fight. The left provides the illusion of freedom. A great movie is The Illusionist.
Excellent!!!
Thank you for sharing this alarming news. I have not heard this from any other Substack author.
I was not aware of the monopoly agreement between Substack and Stripe, and cannot imagine why such an arrangement should exist.
In return for their 10%, I cannot think of any reason why Substack cannot just pay their authors directly instead of via an intermediary.
It is also alarming that Substack is emplying a "Head of Politics". Why? This is beginning to sound like the extra luggage type staff that cleared out of Twitter when Elon Musk moved in.
And it is alarming that Stripe is demanding past transaction history. This is highly intrusive and cannot be justified on any KYC basis.
As a paying subscriber, I am happy to divert my subscription fee to your legal defence fund.
Damn, I was just starting to like this place. I chipped in Doc. Hope it helps
Fight these bastards. Find an alternative to substack and Stripe. There are many credit card processors out there.
yes, and we use Revere. But Substack will only use Stripe.
I also like the idea of only using a pro Free Speech bank such as Old Glory Bank as a safe(r) place to protect checking against de-banking fanatics.
Have you considered looking at a partnership with Public Square or MyStore?