At the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the USA, X owner Elon Musk attracted attention with a gesture that was understood in many places as a Hitler salute. As a result of the scandal, numerous major subreddits have banned links to Musk’s Platform X, the former Twitter, since Tuesday, January 21st. Reddit itself says that the decision comes from the users and that they can design the rules of their subreddits themselves.
How do the subreddits justify their ban on links to X?
One of the most important gaming subreddits /r/pcgaming announced on Wednesday that it had blacklisted X.com.
This step has been thought about for a long time because X is becoming more and more hateful and toxic. At the same time, moderation on the platform will be scaled back. As a result, people became increasingly uncomfortable with allowing links to X in their own subreddit.
Musk’s gesture seems to have been the final straw that broke the camel’s back. The PCGaming subreddit talks about “tasteless things Elon Musk has done lately.”
However, the gaming subreddit will allow screenshots that link to posts by X. Even if an article refers to a post by X, that’s okay. After all, we want to allow discussions and not nip them in the bud.
Essentially, they apparently want to prevent traffic from flowing to X from the subreddit at all. Another subreddit dedicated to the Seattle Seahawks football team explains the ban as follows:
…we believe that the owners and investors of social media platforms have a responsibility to stay out of the political, social and economic media forums, for the benefit and neutrality of their business and the services they offer.
The Internet has never been and never will be a place for free expression. We are all responsible for what we do and say. We hope you all understand the dynamics of this decision and stick around to talk Seahawks football.
The main German Reddit also prohibits links to X
The main German “subreddit” r/de has joined the ban. For some time now it has been forbidden to share links from other social media platforms as postings. Links to X are now also prohibited in the comments. Here, too, it is said that after the controversial developments under the leadership of Elon Musk, they want to prevent traffic from flowing to X.
Destiny and WoW subreddits are also boycotting X
Which subreddits are participating in the ban? There are a lot of them and the number is currently growing: Subreddits about Formula 1, the military, nursing and Nintendo, among others, have joined the ban.
The subreddit for the MMORPG World of Warcraft will also take part in the boycott of X. At r/wow, screenshots are even banned from links to X.
In the subreddit for the online shooter Destiny, r/destiny2, you can find particularly clear words for Elon Musk. It is said here that under Elon Musk,
Where did the trend start? As Mashable writes, the trend apparently started in subreddits of English-speaking sports clubs and leagues. For example with the NFL, the Vancouver Canucks ice hockey team or the English football club Liverpool.
Reddit itself will not interfere in banning links to X
This is what reddit says about it: A statement from reddit to Ars Technica said that the decision to ban links to X came from the users themselves and that members of a subreddit can set the rules themselves.
It should be noted that in some Reddit communities even links to Reddit are prohibited. Such a ban on links isn’t all that unusual, says reddit:
As a company we do not prohibit links to X.