Hundreds of Reddit communities ban Twitter links

If Elon Musk thought he could outshine Donald Trump at his own inauguration with a bit of edgelording, his bankrolling of the far-right and his own antisemitic tweeting mean that most people simply took it at face value as a Nazi salute. Among them are the unpaid moderators of hundreds of subreddits, all banning links to X, formerly Twitter, the social media platform Musk bought more than two years ago.

The biggest subreddits to have enforced the ban include basketball community r/NBA, which has 15 million members, female-focused community r/TwoXChromosomes, which has 14 million members, and American football community r/NFL, which has 12 million members. It is worth remembering that subreddits are almost always run by fans – it does not mean that the NFL or NBA organisations are taking a stance against Musk. The BBC has independently verified that at least 100 subreddits have banned X posts.

Reddit protests generally shake out to nothing over time, with communities reverting to old norms once it becomes inconvenient to maintain restrictions or blackouts. American media and punditry has, by and large, chosen to ignore or rationalize Musk's behaviour. The ADL's panicky insistence that it was some kind of awkward spasm is ostrich-diving for the ages. Conversely, foreign media isn't under any illusions about what it repesents.

Previously: Reddit bans r/GoonCaves