Reddit Users Vote to Ban Links from Elon Musk's X Over Promotion of 'Nazi Ideology'

As far-right and white supremacist groups celebrate Elon Musk's use a hand gesture reminiscent of the Nazi salute at President Donald Trump's inauguration, hundreds of subreddits are voting to ban all links to X, Musk's social media platform.

Many subreddit moderators have already moved to block links to the platform, citing Musk's alleged promotion of white supremacist ideology. A variety of communities—ranging from local subreddits like r/NewJersey and r/phoenix to major sports hubs such as r/NFL, r/hockey, and r/nba—are either implementing bans or polling members on the decision.

Musk has shrugged off the gesture's controversy, posting, "The 'everyone is Hitler' attack is sooo tired." Many find the salute alarming within the context of Musk's support of far-right political movements including Germany's AfD party.

"Given Musk's actions on Monday, it may be time to rethink how we engage with the platform," moderators of a Dungeons and Dragons forum stated. "Continuing to share links to Twitter content risks contributing to the visibility of a platform that has become increasingly hostile to basic principles of decency and respect."

On the "explicitly non-political" r/SteamDeck, the moderators moved to ban X links, stating the subreddit "will not tolerate sending traffic to a website with direct connections to nazism, antisemitism, racism, or other bigotry."

The 4.8 million members-strong subreddit r/formula1 adopted a trial ban, encouraging journalists and content creators to migrate to other platforms. Meanwhile, r/MadeMeSmile, a subreddit with over 10 million subscribers, polled its users with the question, "Would it make you smile if we banned all links to Twitter?" Ironically, even r/WhitePeopleTwitter has called to ban links to the site.

The wave of subreddit actions extends beyond X, with some communities banning Meta platforms like Facebook and Instagram, citing Mark Zuckerberg's recent content policy decisions. r/TwoXChromosomes, a forum with 14 million members celebrating women's perspectives, banned links and screenshots from both X and META.

The mass action is possible due to the decentralized nature of Reddit's volunteer moderation system, where subreddit moderators, rather than corporate executives, control content policies tailored to their communities.

Originally published on Latin Times