Performing two Nazi salutes may have earned Elon Musk some fans in the dark corners of the Internet, but there’s little chance his followers on BitChute and Rumble will be able to catch up with the traffic that X is about to lose. Following Musk’s “I give you my heart” gesture that sounded an awful lot like a Sieg Heil salute, a number of major subreddits on Reddit are banning links to X.
The ban covers virtually all subreddit categories and will cut off X-links from a significant traffic source, as some communities have millions of subscribers. The subreddit r/TwoXChromosomes, which has over 14 million members and is one of the largest to join the protest, prohibited links to (as well as Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) and encouraged users to report any links or screenshots from Musk’s platform so they can be removed.
The movement has spread to different sectors of Reddit. Gaming subreddits including r/Nintendo, r/magicTCG, r/Destiny2And r/KingdomHearts all have decided to ban X links. Other major subreddits, including those in the Smash Bros., Halo, Counter-Strike, and Dungeons and Dragons communities, are actively polling their members to decide whether X will get the boot, by TheGamer.
Sports communities are also taking steps to prevent the sharing of X-links. The subreddit for Formula 1 fans, r/formula1 and its more than four million users are done with Musk’s platform, just like Liverpool fans in 2017. r/LiverpoolFC. Subreddits including r/NFL And r/hockey are considering doing the same, which is a big deal given that much of the sports content is driven by reports coming from Twitter.
The moderator of r/Military gave perhaps the most succinct and decisive ruling on the X posts. While other communities debate whether to remove the X links, u/DreamsAndSchemes made the call without require no consultation and offered the following explanation for the ban: “Fuck this guy.”
While subreddit moderators and community members seem to decide that if the goose looks like a duck, talks like a duck, and passionately does two goose steps in front of a large audience, then you can safely assume that that’s what you think. East.
But others were less willing to condemn Musk. The Anti-Defamation League called Musk’s Seig Hiel move is “an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” to which Musk thanked the group in response. Ben Shapiro came to Musk’s defense by share a photo of the two during a visit to Auschwitz, conveniently leaving out the reason why Musk made this visit because he was promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories And allow outright Nazis to return to X after being previously banned.
Regardless, the traffic that X will experience due to losing major subreddits as an aggregator could be significant, but it’s not clear that it will matter that much to Musk. He seems content to drive the platform’s features into the ground as long as it allows him to build up power – and given that he apparently has office space in the west wingit looks like he’s as close to the levers of power as possible.