X ban spreads on Reddit as communities react to Musk’s gesture

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

The movement has gained considerable 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 not available on other platforms. Moderators noted that while many F1 journalists have migrated to alternative platforms such as Bluesky, teams and drivers have yet to make the switch.

“We think it’s time to try and see how the subreddit works without content from Twitter,” moderators er/Formula1 said, citing concerns about login requirements, bot activity and the platform’s paying users as factors in the decision. theirs.

Given its place in the top 1% of the largest subreddits, er/Formula1 moderators acknowledged that the size of their community gives them significant influence over which social media platforms become the primary sources for Formula 1 news, stated that “as a community of almost 5 million, we probably have a non-trivial effect on which platform is the local source for F1 news.” This raises the question of whether or not coordinated actions by major subreddits can 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 referencing “the values ​​of our team and the history of the players who fought in WW2” received 16,000 votes.

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

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

A volatile social media landscape

These developments are taking place 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 stepped up its investigation into the platform’s algorithms, requesting internal documents related to the “recommendator system” by February 15, according to The Guardian. The investigation, which began in December 2023, focuses on potential violations of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), particularly in relation to content moderation and information manipulation.

The instability on social media platforms was further highlighted last week when TikTok became temporarily unavailable to US users on Saturday night, following a Supreme Court ruling. Although 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 wake of TikTok’s shutdown, alternative platforms saw significant user migration, with Chinese lifestyle platform RedNote experiencing an increase from 700,000 to 3.4 million daily active users in the United States. This exodus demonstrated the willingness of users to quickly adopt alternative platforms when their preferred services become unavailable.

Adding to the events, Meta has also faced growing criticism over platform issues affecting Democratic Party-related content on Instagram, with users searching for terms like “Democrats” facing 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 led by REM frontman Michael Stipe. The boycott, scheduled for January 19-26, calls on users to abandon all Meta platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Messenger, WhatsApp and other Meta products.

These changes, combined with ongoing changes to other major platforms and regulatory pressures, indicate a potential transformation in the way online communities engage with platforms and raise questions about the future social media landscape. While major platforms like Meta and X maintain very large user bases – Meta alone claims around 170 million Instagram accounts in the US – their responses to current criticism and user movements can be decisive. 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 big impact.

For now, platform leaders seem confident in their positions. Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, for example, has stated in Threads that “Some people may turn away from 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 retaining users despite policy changes. Time will tell what the results of such possible strategies may be.