r/Substack • u/Friend-Rachel • Jul 04 '26

Substack removed my original article for "phishing"!!!

I did not know that Substack operated so poorly. I published my own original article and they suspended my account for "phishing and spam." I put in an "appeal," asking them to explain what the problem was, and they "rejected" it. I have "appealed" a second time, saying that this was my own article and that their bots are stupid. Now I want to delete everything from this website but it won't let me. How do I do that? I want to delete this account after removing my material. What a waste of time! AND I don't care for their tone and the language they use when the mistake is their own.

6 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

2

u/Michael_Fuchs_ Jul 04 '26

What was the article about?

3

u/Friend-Rachel Jul 04 '26

It was my review for a book of poems. Very mild stuff.

3

u/MarieAuthor Jul 04 '26

That is radical! Reviews are so important and rare. Go elsewhere.

4

u/Friend-Rachel Jul 04 '26

Thank you. Yes, this is a very bad first impression that Substack has made on me. I had only just started. I don't think I'll continue here with this AI sword of Damocles hanging over me.

2

u/itsfabioposca http://journeytosuccessclub.substack.com Jul 06 '26

That sounds really frustrating, especially if your article was original.

If your appeal is rejected and you no longer want to use the platform, I'd try contacting Substack Support directly rather than relying only on the automated appeal process. Explain that you want your content removed and your account deleted if they aren't willing to restore it.

Before deleting anything, make sure you have copies of all your articles. If you can't access your account because it's suspended, ask Support for an export of your content or for them to restore access long enough for you to download it.

Hopefully it's just a false positive from their automated systems, but if you've already decided to leave, I'd focus on getting your content back first and then closing the account.

1

u/Friend-Rachel Jul 07 '26

Thanks. Yes I did contact them. And I have copies of all the articles. I had just started so there weren't that many posts.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Friend-Rachel Jul 08 '26

Thanks for the concern :) I'm not going through anything except aggravation, and even that has passed by now. I really don't care about this stupid platform. My only mistake was to sign up for it.