More than 50 Reddit communities ban X-links to protest Musk

After X owner Elon Musk made a hand gestureOn a Monday that many people said resembled a Nazi salute, a protest movement has erupted across the social media platform Reddit.

NBC News has identified more than 50 subreddit communities where moderators have since announced that links from X, formerly Twitter, will no longer be allowed in new posts and comments. The protesting communities range in size from tens of members to millions, totaling at least 40 million members. Typically, only a fraction of these members are active, especially in older or larger subreddits. There are around 100,000 active subreddits on the platform.

In many of the posts announcing the new rules, moderators specifically mentioned the salute incident, which occurred at a rally following President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

“Last night, at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and noted alt-right personality, showed the world who he really is, performing a full Sieg Heil Nazi salute not once, but twice,” he said. advertising posts in the subreddit for “Destiny 2,” an online game that has more than 900,000 members. “Here at ir/destiny2 we do not tolerate Nazis. Anyone who spouts Nazi ideology or hate speech has and will always be permanently banned from view, with no possibility of appeal.”

Speaking at the post-inauguration rally, Musk said the 2024 election “really mattered” and thanked the crowd “for making it happen” before placing his right hand on his chest and then extending his arm, palm down at an upward angle. Then he turned and made the same gesture, saying, “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is secured.”

Musk has dismissed claims that he performed a Nazi salute as “pure propaganda” and “dirty tricks”. When the Anti-Defamation League, an organization that fights anti-Semitism, wrote that Musk “made an awkward gesture” that was not “a Nazi salute,” Musk replied “Thanks guys” with a laughing emoji.

Some of the other subreddit message posts referenced Musk’s performance of the rally as well as the political environment on X, citing unmoderated hate speech and pro-Nazi content on the platform, and Musk’s personal support for far-right political figures and views. Some messages also referenced that X posts can no longer be viewed without logging into an account. Many of the communities said that posting screenshots of posts on X is still allowed.

Not allowing links to X in major subreddits could be an important way to suppress the reach of Musk’s platform when it comes to the communities on Reddit that participate. Some moderators discussed how the ban was in hopes of encouraging big figures in their communities to move away from posting on X altogether.

Dozens of other subreddits are currently engaged in community discussions about whether to ban X-links. The Formula 1 racing subreddit, which has 4.8 million members, banned X-links on a trial basis with the intention of a permanent ban after hosting a discussion thread.

“Our main concern with a complete ban is that while many F1 journalists have joined Bluesky, the teams, drivers and FOM have not,” advertising posts said. FOM stands for Formula One Management, and Bluesky has emerged as one of the leading alternative platforms to X. “But we also realize that it’s a chicken or egg problem, and as a community of nearly 5 million, we probably have a non-trivial effect on which platform is the original source of F1 news.”

Subreddits are run by volunteer moderators who are not affiliated with the company that owns the platform. In the past, subreddits have engaged in similar protest movements, such as one to support net neutrality.

Some of the subreddits acknowledged that links to X were not posted often to begin with, but that the decision to ban them was symbolic.

“I recognize that this action is pretty much just virtue signaling,” wrote one moderator a subreddit about the video game “Baldur’s Gate 3”, which has over 180,000 members. “But if someone starts giving Nazi salutes at the presidential inauguration of a supposedly ‘first world’ country, then virtue signaling is the least I can do.”

In a statement, a Reddit spokesperson clarified that the company has not itself imposed a ban on X-links, many of which are still being posted across the platform.

“Reddit has a longstanding commitment to freedom of expression and association,” the statement said.

Subreddits that ban links to X are different. They include communities centered on the US states of New Jersey, Massachusetts and Georgia, US cities such as Salt Lake City, Utah and Buffalo, New York, and international cities such as Exeter in the UK and London in Ontario, Canada. They also include communities for bands, music genres, video games, reality TV shows, sports teams, and even some adult communities that feature nudity.

One of the biggest subreddits that banned links to X is the NBA professional basketball community, which has 15 million members. In the same post, moderators also banned links to Meta’s Instagram, Facebook and Threads, as well as any other social media platform that requires users to log in to view posts, based on feedback from community members.

“We have reached this decision after taking into account recent events and strong feelings from our community,” he said advertising posts said. “While we do our best to remain neutral and apolitical, we do not believe that taking a stand against Nazi symbolism is or should be a political issue. Hate speech and its promotion has never been tolerated in our society.”

Screenshots of posts on X will also not be allowed in the NBA subreddit, according to the post, the effects of which will be monitored and subject to change. The post said the decision was also made to encourage journalists and content creators to move to other platforms, such as Bluesky.