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Corbett Barr's avatar

Hey Simon, great analysis here. I completely agree with your assessment of Patreon's shortcomings vs Substack and other platforms. However, keep in mind that the overall market sentiment may also be responsible for much of the decline in value. Shopify has lost 80% of it's value in the past year, despite being the market leader.

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Kevin Barrett's avatar

You forgot to mention that Patreon lost a lot of business (including mine) by giving up on free speech. For example, on 7/6/21 they emailed me: "We are writing to let you know that your account is currently suspended because it violates our Community Guidelines." They didn't say which guidelines or how I had violated them. I responded:

"I don’t believe I have violated any community guidelines. But after reviewing them, I noticed the new guideline on 'medical misinformation.' That policy, which presumably relates to COVID, didn’t exist when I started posting on Patreon. Since my show is primarily a platform for hearing 'the other side of the story' on all of the most important public policy issues, I have featured a couple of scientists and doctors, like internationally-acclaimed peer-reviewed biowar expert Meryl Nass MD and anti-aging scientist Josh Mitteldorf, who disagree with some of the CDC and WHO policies. So I assume that must be the problem.

"Please note that I have also interviewed experts who support CDC and WHO policies, like historian Eric Zuesse and science professor Gideon Polya. I think my overall coverage of COVID issues is 'fair and balanced' given that the whole purpose of my show is to critique mainstream perspectives from the most defensible and interesting angles.

"I would appreciate it if someone at Patreon could help me figure out what I need to do to remain in compliance. "

Patreon's response was to permanently cancel me without further explanation, which earned them intense ill-will from me and my audience. The same thing happened to many other creators. So by pissing off very large numbers of people, they didn't do their business any favors.

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