• Best selling author Sam Harris has closed his Patreon account to protest a string of recent bans on the platform which appear to be politically motivated
• He was the eleventh most popular content creator on Patreon at the time of his account closure and was estimated to have been generating over $23,000 per month on the site
• Thousands of other Patreon users have also left the site in the last week after voicing similar concerns to Harris
Sam Harris, a five-time New York Times best selling author and podcast host, has quit the fan-funding platform Patreon, citing concerns over political bias.
In a tweet to his former Patreon supporters, Harris explained that he felt the recent bans on the Patreon platform are politically motivated and that it’s no longer tenable to fund his podcast through the site.
Patreon has been closing multiple creator accounts in recent weeks and has generated a wave of criticism from users who feel, like Harris, that these bans are often politically motivated. People are also concerned that many creators have been banned without violating any of Patreon’s community guidelines and believe that this is a sign the company can no longer be trusted.
These recent decisions by Patreon have led to thousands of users leaving the site and early data suggests that the platform has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in pledges as a result.
According to data from Graphtreon, Harris was the eleventh most popular creator on Patreon and it’s estimated he was generating between $23,000 and $65,000 in pledges each month on the site.
Talk show host Dave Rubin also said in a recent video that he’s lost over $5,000 in monthly pledges since Sargon left the site.
This exodus from Patreon has created a huge gap in the market for a fan funding platform that promotes free speech and doesn’t engage in political censorship. And it looks like that gap could be filled very quickly. Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson, a best selling author and clinical psychologist, recently announced plans to launch a Patreon alternative that will embrace these ideals.
They haven’t shared many details about this new project but they do expect it to be live within the next month. As users continue to flee Patreon, it will be exciting to see how Peterson and Rubin’s new fan funding platform develops.
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