After X owner Elon Musk made a hand gesture on Monday that many people said resembled a Nazi salute, a protest movement broke out on 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. Protesting communities range in size from dozens of members to millions, totaling at least 40 million members. Typically, only a fraction of these members are active, particularly on 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 handshake incident, which took place at a rally after President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
“Last night at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, Tesla CEO and well-known far-right personality Elon Musk showed the world who he really is and performed a full Sieg Heil Nazi salute not once, but twice,” the ad post said. in the “Destiny 2” subreddit, an online game that has more than 900,000 members. “We don’t tolerate Nazis here at r/destiny2. “Anyone uttering Nazi ideology or hate speech has been, and always will be, permanently banned from view, with no possibility of appeal.”
During his speech at the post-inauguration rally, Musk said the 2024 election “really mattered” and thanked the crowd “for making this happen,” before placing his right hand on his chest and then extending his arm, with the palm facing down, at an upward angle. Then he turned around and made the same gesture and said, “My heart goes out to you. Thanks to you, the future of civilization is assured.”
Musk has referred to accusations 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 responded “Thanks guys,” with a laughing emoji.
Some of the subreddit’s other announcement posts referenced Musk’s appearance at 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 endorsement of far-right political figures and views. Some announcements also made reference to the fact 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 Some moderators discussed how the ban was done in hopes of encouraging important figures in their communities to stop posting on X.
Dozens of other subreddits are currently engaged in community discussions about banning X-links. The subreddit for Formula One racing, which has 4.8 million members, banned X-links on a trial basis with the intent of a ban permanent 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,” the announcement post said. FOM stands for Formula One Management, and Bluesky has become one of the leading alternative platforms to non-trivial problem. effect on which platform is the native source of F1 news.”
The subreddits are run by volunteer moderators, who are not affiliated with the company that owns the platform. In the past, subreddits have participated in similar protest movements, such as one to support net neutrality.
Some of the subreddits acknowledged that links to X weren’t posted frequently to begin with, but that the decision to ban them was symbolic.
“I recognize that this action is largely just virtue signaling,” wrote a moderator of a subreddit about the video game “Baldur’s Gate 3,” which has more than 180,000 members. “But if someone starts doing Nazi salutes at the presidential inauguration of a so-called ‘first world’ country, then the least I can do is virtue signal.”
In a statement, a Reddit spokesperson clarified that the company itself has not imposed a ban on X links, and many are still posted on the platform.
“Reddit has a long-standing commitment to free speech and freedom of association,” the statement said.
The subreddits that ban links to X are diverse. They include communities centered in 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 United Kingdom and London in Ontario, Canada. They also include communities for bands, music genres, video games, reality shows, sports teams, and even some adult communities that feature nudity.
One of the largest subreddits to ban links to X is the NBA professional basketball community, which has 15 million members. In the same post, moderators also banned links to Instagram, Facebook, and Meta Threads, as well as any other social media platform that requires users to log in to view posts, based on comments from community members.
“We have made this decision after taking into account recent events and the strong sentiment in our community,” the announcement post said. “While we do our best to remain neutral and apolitical, we do not believe that taking a stance against Nazi symbolism is or should be a political issue. “Hate speech and its promotion have never been tolerated in our community.”
According to the post, screenshots of posts on X will also not be allowed on the NBA subreddit, 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 migrate to other platforms, such as Bluesky.
