Elon Musk has faced no tangible consequences for his “Nazi salute” at Donald Trump’s inauguration, but Reddit has had enough. In response, multiple subreddits are now banning links to Musk’s X in protest.
That being said, it’s important to note that Reddit is not guiltless when it comes to the situation we’re all in. For a long time, Reddit hosted r/the_donald, where conspiracy theories and abusive behavior ran rampant. It was finally banned in 2020, but the damage had certainly been done. These days, though, a lot of Reddit is generally left-leaning and anti-Trump, with a multitude of pro-Trump comments on the bigger forums often being downvoted.
Reddit still contains a lot of misinformation and bigotry—but certainly no more than X. Since Musk took over what used to be Twitter, it’s become a far-right cesspit of lies. Truth be told, it’s been awful to watch the site’s downfall in real time and see more and more people leave. Bluesky has set itself up as an alternative, and has over 27 million users now, but the loss of Twitter still stings.
According to the BBC, over 100 subreddits have banned links to X. For example, r/nba—which is a fan forum not affiliated with the NBA as a company—made that announcement yesterday. “We have reached this decision after taking recent events and strong sentiment from our community into account,” read the statement. “While we try our best to stay neutral and apolitical, we do not believe taking a stance against Nazi symbolism is or should be a political issue. Hate speech and the promotion of it has never been tolerated in our community.” The r/nba subreddit has 15 million users.
Another community taking a stand is r/sidehustle, a 2.8M-strong sub where Reddit users discuss ways to make extra money. “Elon Musk has not clearly stated one simple thing: Antisemitism and Nazis are Bad,” the mods of the community wrote. “A reasonable person would have apologized and stated that hatred of any kind is not supported on their platform, but he has consciously decided not to address the issue, despite owning an entire social media platform.” All X links are now banned on the subreddit until March, where the policy will be reviewed but “will most likely remain permanent.”
The sub dedicated to the game Destiny 2 took an even stronger stance. “[Musk] is without a doubt, a neo-Nazi,” read their statement. “It has been abundantly clear that Elon Musk has been slowly, intentionally, and maliciously changing X, formerly Twitter into a breeding ground and echo chamber for the alt-right. He even abused the algorithm to hide political opponents’ own campaign material throughout the duration of the U.S. election cycle, knowing full well the sheer population of his website, to indirectly influence the results of the election.”
In addition to these bans, there’s been an uptick in anti-Nazi posts on Reddit. The subreddit r/OldSchoolCool, devoted to old photographs, is now packed full of people sharing pictures of their grandparents and other relatives who fought Nazis in World War II. Some fandom subs now feature fanart (or, in some cases, official art) of favorite characters punching Nazis at the top of the feed.
No subreddit mods who have brought in new rules about X will face any consequences. “Reddit has a longstanding commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of association,” a spokesperson for the company told Ars Technica. What Elon Musk, who is a free speech absolutist on paper but absolutely not one in reality, will make of the news remains to be seen.
Published: Jan 23, 2025 09:58 am