Substack's messy plagiarism scandal says a lot about the internet today

If you've been anywhere near Substack in the last few days, you may have seen mention of the plagiarism scandal currently tearing through the platform. With Substack's #1 New Bestseller being accused of directly lifting the work of another writer (and potentially several others), questions are being raised about the integrity of content in the age of AI – and whether platforms themselves should be doing more to penalise copycats.

Earlier this week, social scientist Katie Jgln wrote a Substack post accusing a user named Maalvika of plagiarising one of her essays in 2024. This week, Maalvika became Substack's top new Bestseller after a new essay on 'compression culture' went viral on the platform.

"I quickly pulled up my essay, published on February 9th, and then hers, published March 13th," Jgln explains in her post. "The title was different, though it conveyed the same idea; however, the body was a near copy-paste job, with a few bits removed or changed and some words swapped out, I guess to make it seem ‘different’ enough. But it wasn’t. My observations, metaphors, italicised emphasis (!), and the research I’d gathered stared back at me from her page."

To make matters worse, in a TikTok video accompanying the plagiarised essay, Maalvika called it "my most well-researched" Substack.

The whole saga has given Maalvika the dubious honour of becoming perhaps Substack's first ever 'main character', with users of the platform unified in condemnation of the purported plagiarism this week. While it isn't clear whether Maalvika's other posts are plagiarised, some users have speculated that AI could be involved, since she, a PhD Candidate and Northwestern University, appears to have written several papers on AI tools and literacy.

Maalvika did not respond to our request for comment, but has since released a statement on Substack, explaining, "i love katie’s writing & saved it in my notes over a year ago, planning to write something in a similar spirit later. i ended up using her exact words & phrasing which is completely wrong, and i deeply, deeply apologize to anyone who feels hurt by that. i totally understand being furious at me, i’d be too."

But while many of the complaints across Substack Notes have called Maalvika out directly, they've also noted the silence from Substack itself. While content theft is incredibly common across social media, the financial model of Substack, which calls itself a "new economic engine for culture", changes the perspective. With users easily able to monetise their posts, and the Notes platform facilitating virality on the platform, rather than simply watching their stolen content earn Likes for someone else, creatives can watch in real time as it earns that person, and Substack, money.

Substack's own guidelines on dealing with plagiarism are characteristically non-committal. "When your plagiarist is a big name or has a big platform, calling them out might be enough to resolve your problem. You get the recognition you deserve; your plagiarist gets the scorn they’ve got coming." But the company adds, "The internet is vast, and it can be expensive to enforce your rights. "

As AI generated content becomes increasingly difficult to spot, the question of authenticity is extremely prescient right now. It's clear from Maalvika's rapid ascent to #1 New Bestseller status that a large amount of people have seen literal value in her output. But it's also clear from the heated response to those plagiarism accusations that, given the choice, most would rather give their time and money to the original creator. While there are plenty of brilliant writers on Substack (and one incredible one), perhaps just as important than quality in 2025 is transparency.