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

Greater than 100 Reddit communities have banned customers from posting hyperlinks to X in protest at proprietor Elon Musk’s controversial arm gesture at a rally celebrating Donald Trump’s return to workplace.

The billionaire twice prolonged his arm out straight as he thanked the group for “making it occur.”

Critics, together with some historians, stated it was a Nazi salute – Mr Musk has dismissed that, saying comparisons with Hitler have been “drained” and “soiled methods.”

Nonetheless many Reddit customers have been unpersuaded by his response describing his actions as “hateful”, main the moderators of scores of communities – or subreddits – to cease content material being shared on X.

The BBC has approached X and Reddit for remark.

Reddit depends closely on neighborhood moderation, the place unpaid people often called Redditors resolve what’s – and is not – allowed to be printed on their very own nook of the web site.

They reasonable subreddits, the identify given to a discussion board inside the Reddit platform which is successfully a neighborhood of people that collect to debate a selected curiosity.

For the reason that controversy erupted, dozens of these subreddits have determined they will not hyperlink to content material on X, probably decreasing visitors and engagement.

The largest subreddits to have enforced the ban embrace basketball neighborhood r/NBA, which has 15 million members, female-focused neighborhood r/TwoXChromosomes, which has 14 million members, and American soccer neighborhood r/NFL, which has 12 million members.

It’s value remembering that subreddits are nearly at all times run by followers – it doesn’t imply that the NFL or NBA organisations are taking a stance in opposition to Musk.

The BBC has independently verified that at the very least 100 subreddits have banned X posts.

Of this quantity, greater than 60 have at the very least 100,000 members.

However the precise quantity which have instituted the ban will possible be considerably larger by bearing in mind smaller subreddits with only some thousand members.

And there are numerous extra communities discussing a possible blacklisting.

The subreddits run by followers of soccer golf equipment Liverpool, Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur have all instituted the bans, as have communities for a lot of US sports activities sides in addition to Method 1.

The subreddits the place residents of many cities and nations collect all over the world – starting from New Jersey to South Korea – have additionally blocked posts to X.

And avid gamers are additionally amongst these to herald the ban for video video games together with Baldur’s Gate 3 and World of Warcraft.

However whereas the blacklisting might have first began in a few of these communities, it’s popping up in quite a lot of locations now the place individuals collect to debate all types of subjects, starting from RuPaul’s Drag Race to Disneyland and even the army.

Whereas the overwhelming majority of subreddits discussing a ban are in favour of it, there are some which have refused.

The moderators of the Maine community for example say they will not institute a ban as long as “the state keep official accounts there”.

And those running a group for people in British Columbia stated they merely aren’t “doing censorship right here”.

Although there are numerous subreddits which already disallow posts from social media, these constructed round skilled sports activities particularly might have a huge impact on referrals to X.

That is as a result of sports activities subreddits typically get plenty of content material from hyperlinks to athletes, analysts and journalists who spend plenty of time posting on-line.

For instance, the highest two hottest posts of all time on the NBA subreddits are screenshots taken from X, whereas three of the highest ten hottest posts of all time on the AEW wrestling subreddit are screenshots from the platform.

And gaming subreddits have an analogous story, with the highest posts on the Animal Crossing and Kingdom Hearts communities each screenshots from X.

However that’s not to say the bans will essentially be everlasting – Reddit is understood for this type of neighborhood motion to protest in opposition to wider points, which does not at all times work out.

In 2023, thousands of communities “went dark” to contest adjustments to how the platform was being run.

A few of the largest Reddit communities then started solely permitting images and movies of comic John Oliver, following feedback from disgruntled customers.

However this proved to be short-lived.

Finally the communities principally turned publicly accessible once more, and Reddit’s plan in the end proved financially useful – the platform subsequently successfully listed on the New York Inventory Alternate.