Substack Banned My Reporting on Israeli Flag Controversy Based on a Bogus Complaint

Why my confidence in Substack’s commitment to free speech has been shattered.

DUBLIN, IRELAND (March 3, 2024) — Substack Trust & Safety unilaterally, and without prior notice, or even subsequent notification, removed an article I published on February 25, 2024.

The article Who Actually Complained about New Rochelle’s Israeli Flag? returns a “Page not found” error message.

I have cross-posted the article on Talk of the Sound, so you can read it here.

Substack Trust & Safety has ordered me to edit the article to remove parts of the article they falsely claim violates their policies and terms of service. This claim is, in turn, based on two false claims made by a person referenced in the article. I have notified them they are dead wrong, explained why, and that I will not change a single jot in the article. Among other things, I have demanded they restore the article as originally published, apologize and pay me $25. Failing that, I will refer the matter to my attorney and he can sort it out.

I only learned what Substack Trust & Safety had done when I received an auto-generated email from Substack Support on Friday, March 1, 2024, at about 8:00 am, dated “Thu, Feb 29, 2024 at 11:01 PM” asking me to take a short survey to rate the support I received. The dates matter, as will soon be apparent.

As I did not request support, I opened the email with some trepidation, thinking it might be some sort of phishing scam.

As I scrolled cautiously through the email I was dumbfounded to see a previous, separate message from “Tex” at Substack Trust & Safety dated “Feb 28, 2024, 5:04 PM EST”, attached by Substack Support as a “reminder” of what my (?) support request was about. The dates show they waited two days to notify me they had removed my article.

I did not make Substack Support Request #576781 — or any support request.

“Tex” at Substack Trust & Safety has since confirmed that the person who did is Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés.

This begs the question:

Who is Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés?

As readers know, it is never a good thing to find your name in a “Who is…?” article by Robert Cox. Such people get fired, arrested, imprisoned or otherwise exposed for corrupt practices.

On Friday, I put Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés on notice via a phone call that unless Substack restores the article as published and/or he withdraws his bogus complaint, the matter will be referred to my attorney, and he will be named in a lawsuit alleging defamation, tortious interference and any other charges that apply to his making false and defamatory claims to get Substack to ban my article, costing me money and harming my reputation.

I sent a series of emails to Substack and got one response from “Tex” at Substack Trust & Safety.

I have requested but have not been provided the actual complaint, so I have been forced to infer what the actual complaint claims but likely this:

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés is a previously anonymous person
1-914-602-6456 is a private phone number assigned to Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés

Not actually stated but clearly inferred is that as the now banned article contained this phone number and as the phone number is not “publicly accessible information” I have violated Substack’s Privacy Policy.

Substack Trust & Safety has taken false claims made by Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés at face value to convict me without due process or a hearing of having “exposed information personally identifying an individual without their consent” without even being told the charges let alone an opportunity to respond to the charges, to wit:

Releasing personally identifiable information of previously anonymous individuals is a violation of Substack’s Content Guidelines and Terms of Use.

I am going to publish the email exchange with Substack here on Talk of the Sound because if I publish this article on Substack they will ban this article as well — and the article Who is Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés?

Before doing so, I explained the situation to my web hosting provider and received the following assurance.

For those who understandably do not want to read the entire exchange, here is an executive summary.

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés made his phone number public

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés is not an infant. He is an adult. He is a graduate of Cornell Law School. Furthermore, he is licensed to practice law in New York State (and Texas). He is a practicing attorney in New York.

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés works in the New York office of the Corporate Counsel at Ipsos, which describes itself a Global Market Research and Public Opinion Specialist. Ipsos is the world’s third-largest research agency with offices in 89 countries, employing 19,500 people.

It is reasonable then to believe that Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés knew (and knows now) that his emails sent to New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert are public record, subject to the New York State Freedom of Information Law and the New York State Records Retention Schedule.

Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés knowingly and deliberately made 1-914-602-6456 public by including this phone number in a series of public records, emails he sent to New Rochelle Mayor Yadira Ramos-Herbert; on January 17, January 19, and January 30. It appears his purpose in doing so was to get the Mayor to call him so he could advocate for removing the Israeli flag from in front of City Hall.

The City of New Rochelle Corporation Counsel reviewed all of his emails and not once redacted 1-914-602-6456. She made a legal determination that the phone number is not exempt from FOIL and so is part of the public record.

Substack Failed to Correctly Apply its Privacy Policy

“Tex” at Substack Trust & Safety has selectively cited the Substack Privacy Policy.

He wrote:, “Our private information policy prohibits publishing other people’s private information such as personal phone numbers without express authorization.”

He omitted something important.

Here is the FULL PRIVACY POLICY:

Private information
You may not publish or post other people’s private information (such as a personal phone number or home address) without their express authorization and permission. We also prohibit threatening to expose private information or incentivizing others to do so. The publication of publicly accessible information is not a violation of this policy.

The last sentence goes to the heart of the matter.

1-914-602-6456 is publicly accessible information, as evidenced by the fact I obtain emails with that number as part of a public records request.

The sole reason for 1-914-602-6456 being publicly accessible information is because Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés knowingly and deliberately placed 1-914-602-6456 in the public record on three separate occasions.

I never heard of Isaiah J. Marcano Avilés until a few days ago, when his emails were sent to me pursuant to a lawful FOIL request. I would certainly have no reason to know his phone number is 1-914-602-6456, and even less reason to publish that number. The only reason the number was published by me is because he put it into public records that were relevant to my reporting on the Israeli flag controversy.

With that said, here are the emails with Substack.