X Ban Spreads Across Reddit As Communities React To Musk’s Gesture

A growing number of Reddit communities are proposing and implementing bans on links to X (formerly known as Twitter), following the recent controversy surrounding Elon Musk's salute at a Trump inaugural event on Monday.

The movement has gained significant momentum across major subreddits, with r/Formula1 — a community of 4.8 million subscribers — announcing a trial period banning all X content, with limited exceptions for screenshots of posts from teams, drivers and official F1 accounts that aren't available on other platforms. The moderators noted that while many F1 journalists have migrated to alternative platforms like Bluesky, teams and drivers have yet to make the transition.

"We think it's time to try and see how the subreddit works without content from Twitter," the r/Formula1 moderators stated, citing concerns about login requirements, bot activity and the platforming of paying users as factors in their decision.

Given its place in the top 1% of largest subreddits, r/Formula1's moderators acknowledged that their community's size gives them significant influence over which social media platforms become the primary sources for Formula 1 news, stating that "as a community of almost 5 million, we probably have a non-trivial effect as to what platform is the native source for F1 news." This raises the question of whether or not coordinated actions by major subreddits could influence how sports teams, celebrities and organizations distribute their social media presence across platforms.

Other Reddit sports communities have also been particularly active in this movement. According to Newsweek, a proposal to ban X links on r/LiverpoolFC received over 36,000 votes, with users citing alignment with the club's values as motivation. Similarly, the Chicago Bears subreddit has a proposal that referenced "the values of our team and history of players who fought in WW2" garnered 16,000 votes.

Some notable gaming communities have followed suit, with r/destiny2 implementing an immediate ban on X links, while continuing to allow screenshots. The moderators pointed to alternative platforms like Bluesky, where official gaming accounts have an established presence, as viable alternatives for community updates and announcements.

With many more subreddits discussing and implementing X content bans overnight, the new movement could pave the way for discussions about the role of large online communities in shaping platform adoption.

A Volatile Social Media Landscape

These developments are developing during a period of significant upheaval in the social media landscape. Social media company X, for example, is facing increased regulatory pressure in Europe. The European Commission has intensified its investigation into the platform's algorithms, requesting internal documents about its "recommender system" by Feb. 15, according to The Guardian. The investigation, which began in Dec. 2023, focuses on potential breaches of the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), particularly regarding content moderation and information manipulation.

The instability in social media platforms was further highlighted last week when TikTok became temporarily unavailable to U.S. users on Saturday night, following a Supreme Court decision. Though the platform resumed operations after approximately 12 hours under a proposed new ownership structure, the brief shutdown had immediate effects on user behavior. In the buildup to TikTok's shutdown, alternative platforms saw significant user migration, with Chinese lifestyle platform RedNote experiencing a surge from 700,000 to 3.4 million daily active users in the United States. This exodus demonstrated users' willingness to rapidly adopt alternative platforms when their preferred services become unavailable.

Adding to events Meta has also faced mounting criticism over platform issues affecting Democratic Party-related content on Instagram, where users searching for terms like "Democrats" are met with content restriction notices. The company also recently announced the end of its third-party fact-checking program in the United States, prompting a week-long "Lights Out Meta" boycott campaign, spearheaded by R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe. The boycott, scheduled for January 19-26, calls for users to abandon all Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger, WhatsApp, and other Meta products.

These changes, combined with ongoing shifts at other major platforms and regulatory pressures, indicate a potential transformation in how online communities engage with platforms and raises questions about social media's future landscape. While major platforms like Meta and X maintain significantly large user bases — Meta alone claims approximately 170 million Instagram accounts in the U.S. — their responses to current criticisms and user movements could be crucial. The recent actions of Reddit's communities, with the platform hosting over 100,000 active subreddits and serving 97.2 million daily active users, could also have a major impact.

For now, platform leaders appear confident in their positions. Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, for example, has stated on Threads that "Some people may leave our platforms for virtue signaling, but I think the vast majority and many new users will find that these changes make the products better," suggesting that some social media giants may be betting on user retention, despite policy changes. Time will tell what the outcomes of such potential strategies may be.