Elon Musk’s gesture at the inauguration sparked controversy.
Elon Musk’s gesture to Donald Trump supporters at a post-inauguration rally sparks controversy.
Several Reddit communities recently Proposed and implemented The ban on links to X, formerly known as Twitter, sparked controversy over a gesture made by Elon Musk, the majority shareholder of the social media platform, at an inaugural event on Monday.
Across users Various sub-editsincluding A Formula 1 community With nearly 5 million members, has suggested that moderators ban links to X.com in their forums with the goal of reducing the amount of traffic sent to X when links are shared in the subreddit.
A Reddit spokesperson told USA Today on Wednesday that users are able to edit or issue their own rules within their respective forums.
A moderator in the Formula 1 group announced on Tuesday that the subreddit will ban all of X’s content for a trial period and possibly permanently. The move comes a day after Musk’s remarks at President Donald Trump’s inauguration rally. At the rally, Musk tapped his right hand to his chest and then raised it, palm down. He did it again after a while.
Some have likened the gesture to a Nazi salute, while others have dismissed the criticism. The Anti-Defamation League said In one Post on x that it was “an odd gesture in a moment of excitement, not a Nazi salute”.
While the tech billionaire has yet to explain the meaning behind the gesture, Musk did respond directly to a supporter on X, who said the “salutation scam was another part of the ‘Dirty Tricks campaign’.”
“Frankly, they need better dirty tricks,” Musk wrote in one X Answer. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is so tired.
Here’s what you need to know about what’s going on with possible X restrictions in sub-edits.
Moderators in Formula 1 explain the change.
Formula 1 moderators noted that the online forum dedicated to F1 news has had content restrictions “for a very long time”.
“There’s no doubt that over the years, Twitter has become a low-quality medium: login requirements, a flood of bots, prioritization of content over paying users and promotion of sensational content,” r/Formula1 stated “We think it’s time to try and see how the subreddit works without Twitter content.”
Reddit, the social networking platform that hosts these subreddits, said in a statement that the company “has no restrictions on X links – there are still plenty of X links on Reddit.”
“Notably, many Reddit communities also prohibit Reddit links,” the statement read. “Reddit has a long-standing commitment to freedom of expression and association.”
Other subreddits join r/Formula1 in the X restriction.
Other subreddits have implemented the X ban in recent times. Two other sports-focused subreddits, r/LiverpoolFC And r/CHIBearsusers have suggested the X restriction, citing misalignment in values.
“Seen this on a few other football club subreddits – seems like a no-brainer to me, especially given our club’s values,” said one user in the r/LiverpoolFC subreddit. wrote He got about 40,000 votes. I also had a similar conversation. r/CHIBears subreddit.
All three subreddits are ranked in the “top 1%” of communities on Reddit, but only r/Formula1 has over a million users. r/Liverpool has around 582,000 users while r/CHIBears hosts around 378,000 users.
Chess subreddit users, Chessand for dungeon and dragon lovers, r/DnDhas made a similar request to the moderators in their respective forums.
Contributing: USA TODAY’s Davis Winkie and Will Carlisle
