Over 100 Reddit groups ban X links in protest at Musk arm gesture

More than 100 Reddit communities have blocked users from posting links to X in protest of owner Elon Musk’s controversial arm gesture at a rally celebrating Donald Trump’s return to office.

The billionaire extended his arm straight out twice as he thanked the audience for “making it happen.”

Critics, including some historians, said it was a Nazi salute. Mr. Musk refusedHe described comparisons to Hitler as “tired” and “dirty tricks.”

However, many Reddit users were not convinced by his response calling his actions “abhorrent,” prompting moderators of dozens of communities – or subreddits – to stop sharing content on X.

X has not commented, but Reddit has confirmed that there is no site-wide ban on links to

However, the platform relies heavily on community moderation, where unpaid individuals known as Redditors decide what is and is not allowed to be posted in their corner of the site.

In several cases, Redditors came to a different conclusion, deciding that Mr. Musk’s actions were so offensive that they would no longer link to content from their subreddits on X, potentially reducing traffic, engagement and — ultimately — revenue.

The largest subreddits to impose the ban include the basketball community r/NBA, which has 15 million members, the female-focused community r/TwoXChromosomes, which has 14 million members, and the American football community r/NFL, which has 12 million members.

It’s worth noting that subreddits on Reddit are almost always run by fans — which doesn’t mean the NFL or NBA are taking a stance against Musk.

The BBC has independently verified that at least 100 Reddit subreddits have blocked X’s posts.

Of this number, there are more than 60 organizations with at least 100,000 members.

But the actual number of bans is likely much higher if we consider smaller subreddits with only a few thousand members.

There are several communities discussing a potential blacklist.

Subreddits run by fans of the Liverpool, Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur football clubs have all imposed the ban, as have the communities of several US sports teams as well as Formula 1.

The subreddits where residents of many cities and countries around the world — from New Jersey to South Korea — congregate have also blocked posts on X.

Gamers are also among those to impose bans on video games including Baldur’s Gate 3 and World of Warcraft.

But while the blacklist may have first started in some of these communities, it’s now popping up in a variety of places where people gather to discuss all kinds of topics, from RuPaul’s Drag Race to Disneyland to the military.

While the vast majority of subreddits discussing the ban support it, some have rejected it.

the Maine community moderators say for example They will not impose a ban as long as “the state maintains official accounts there.”

and Those who run a group for people in B.C They said they simply “don’t censor here.”

Although there are many subreddits that don’t actually allow posts from social media, those based around professional sports in particular can have a significant impact on referrals to X.

This is because sports subreddits generally get a large amount of their content from links to athletes, analysts, and journalists who spend a lot of time posting online.

For example, the two most popular posts ever on the NBA subreddit are screenshots taken from X, while three of the ten most popular posts ever on the AEW wrestling subreddit are screenshots from the platform.

The gaming subreddit has a similar story, with the top posts in the Animal Crossing and Kingdom Hearts communities showing screenshots from X.

But that doesn’t mean the ban will necessarily be permanent, as Reddit is known for this kind of community movement to protest broader issues, which doesn’t always work.

In 2023, Thousands of communities ‘went dark’ To object to changes in how the platform operates.

Some of Reddit’s largest communities have begun allowing only photos and videos of comedian John Oliver, following comments from disgruntled users.

But this proved short-lived.

Eventually, the communities became publicly available again, and Reddit’s plan ultimately proved financially beneficial – the platform It was later successfully listed On the New York Stock Exchange.