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Hundreds of communities on Reddit, known as subreddits, are opting to block links to the social media network X to protest an arm gesture made by Elon Musk at Monday's inauguration festivities.
The gesture, which critics say was modeled after the Nazi Seig Heil salute and which Musk did twice, has led subreddit communities to opt to ban links to X, which Musk owns.
Musk himself has responded to the backlash, calling the criticism "dirty tricks," posting a string of Nazi-related puns and reposting a statement from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyaju, who defended Musk.
Reddit communities including ones devoted to the NBA, Nintendo, and TwoXChromosomes, each with millions of members, banned links to X. The subreddit /TwoXChromosomes also banned links and screenshots for Meta-owned services such as Instagram and Facebook. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg has been criticized for his recent alignment with the incoming Donald Trump presidential administration. These decisions are largely made by the moderators and users of subreddit communities, many of which already have longstanding rules about the kinds of links and content that can be included in posts.
On the Nintendo subreddit, a moderator posted, "Due to recent actions from Elon Musk, the owner of x.com, r/Nintendo will join other subreddits that are banning links to the website. We know this may be frustrating, as Nintendo often makes announcements using the site, but going forward we will not allow any direct links."
Reddit said in a statement that it does not ban X links across the board and there are still plenty of X links across the wider platform. "Reddit has a longstanding commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of association," said a company spokesperson.
An email to X about the protests was also not immediately returned.
Reddit's platform has been used for protests by subreddit communities before, sometimes against Reddit itself. Last year, subreddit communities lost the ability to shut out new users by changing group classifications to protest policy and API pricing changes on the platform.
