Summary

Hundreds of subreddits are debating banning links to X.com (formerly Twitter) following Elon Musk’s Nazi salute at a Trump rally.

Dozens of subreddit moderators have already implemented bans, while others are holding votes among their communities.

The bans span political, regional, and topical subreddits, including r/NewJersey, r/londonOntario, and r/christianity, with some highlighting Musk’s gesture alongside neo-Nazi imagery.

This move reflects growing backlash against Musk and his platform over perceived alignment with extremist symbolism.

  • chetradley@lemm.ee
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    1 hour ago

    We’re spending so much media attention on this Nazi salute that I’m wondering if it may have been the intent all along - tie up media coverage while the Trump administration pushes harmful legislation through under the radar.

  • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    I’ve banned new Teslas from going before me at stop signs, passing me on the freeway, and not being cut off by me within inches in the left lane at any opportunity I can take.

  • VerifiedSource@sh.itjust.works
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    9 hours ago

    Boycotting Twitter is a good idea for many reasons. However this kind of blanket link ban will lead to more informational segregation quickly. This has already happened in many ways since the beginning of the war on Ukraine. Linking to Telegram or any Russian website is no longer allowed in many forums, e. g. Reddit. That has made finding original sources and verifying information much more difficult.

    Take links to videos for example. Reddit is full of videos copied from YouTube, Telegram, TikTok, etc. without attributing the original source. The World Wide Web was supposed to link information together into a network, where you can follow up on origins snd details. Nowadays it has turned into a series of copy & paste silos, enabling the most extreme echo chambers.

      • VerifiedSource@sh.itjust.works
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        7 hours ago

        Sure. MAGA/Trumpism aren’t reincarnated Nazis though. It is a uniquely American populist personality cult. Calling them Nazis means you don’t understand how they operate and why they’re successful.

    • HolidayGreed@sh.itjust.works
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      8 hours ago

      I think segregation is the long term plan. People can’t rise up so easily against oppressive regimes if there is no de facto soapbox or platform on which to do it.

      Social media gives us all an opportunity to be heard and share information in ways that email, or instant messages can’t.

      The changes in attitudes towards social media websites, caused in this instance by Elon Musk are a great way for those in power to suppress another Arab Spring type event in the future.

      The link between Twitter and U.S. politics is plain to see, and U.K. politics seems to be mingling with the same crowd.

      Knowledge is power; Wikipedia is next on the hit list.

      • Initiateofthevoid@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        54 minutes ago

        The changes in attitudes towards social media websites, caused in this instance by Elon Musk are a great way for those in power to suppress another Arab Spring type event in the future.

        The change in attitude is the consequence, not the cause. The best way for those in power to suppress another Arab Spring type event is a change in ownership of a massively influential social media platform where the richest man can take over completely to censor and control the narrative and oh, whoops… that already happened.

      • VerifiedSource@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        I doubt there’s a plan behind this.

        Social media wasn’t the primary driver behind the Arab spring. The economic issues were the trigger. People couldn’t afford to buy food. Lack of food will topple any government. Media control only gets one so far.

        On the Internet the dominant websites can change quickly. Being banned from Twitter enabled Trump‘s Truth Social. Buying Twitter gave Elon Musk a giant soap box. However new soapboxes are constructed all the time and some succeed.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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        8 hours ago

        First they banned in person socializing/communication, next will be internet communication/socializing

          • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
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            6 hours ago

            Banned is a bit of hyperbole. But it’s clear as day that most of the third places have evaporated over the years. You can blame some of it on economics, but there are prominent right wingers who have talked about changing the language so average Americans from different political systems aren’t able to have a civil conversations anymore, and the need to shut down third places that serve as a melting pot for ideas.

            When I was a child, I distinctly remember many occasions where family or friends would meet and discuss policy… not politicians, actual policy in a civil way. Now those discussions don’t happen, try to talk to a Conservative and see how long you can talk about policy before they bring up Trump, Pelosi or some other figure head.

  • pyre@lemmy.world
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    8 hours ago

    eh, spez is probably going to step in and force them back to require Twitter or something. he wouldn’t want to be pushed out of the oligarchy.

    fuck spez in advance

  • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world
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    13 hours ago

    I wish I could stop using WhatsApp but that’s where all the people without phone plans are. I wish I could stop using Telegram but that’s where all the drug dealers are. I wish Reddit would ban X links, but that’s where all the sassy hot takes are.

    • lurklurk@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      You can of course, you’re just chosing to support zuck, musk and durov because it’s slightly inconvenient for you not to

      Of those three, telegram isn’t as bad though. They’re insecure and share data with law enforcement etc, but they’re not as active and enthusiastic collaborators with Trump

      • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        My point is the network effect. That’s where people are and I have no power to change that, so that is where I must sometimes be. If it was up to me, things would be wonderful and open source. But I sometimes have to deal with — ugh… humans.

        • lurklurk@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          It is up to you though. I get that you can make the choice that supporting zuck and musk is an OK price to pay to not have to do a little more work or be the annoying person saying “I only have Signal” but it is very much your choice. You could choose differently, if your priorities were different

          • JimVanDeventer@lemmy.world
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            9 hours ago

            India alone is about 2 billion people who all use WhatsApp. I cannot change the world. I hear you and would love for us all to switch to federated or — at least — decentralized things, or whatever. I will advocate for it, but like banks and shit are using WhatsApp. It is legitimized here even more than MMS. I can’t stop it. And yes, I have made the choice to communicate with humans rather than using Signal.

          • whoisearth@lemmy.ca
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            9 hours ago

            Some of us value our social connections more I guess? I still use WhatsApp and I have no control over those around me to use otherwise. As already stated it’s the network effect. The vast majority of people do not care about Telegram or Signal.

          • lenuup@reddthat.com
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            9 hours ago

            I did that for a while. The thing that happened was that I got left out of stuff, because people didn’t always think of informing me separately, when it was already discussed in the already existing groups. Sometimes they would inform me after all the planning was done what the plans were, sometimes I got a last minute info or no info at all. So the choice was between a significant loss in my social life and using the same service as everyone else in my social circles.

    • Omega@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      I have an account for a few specific subs (that shut down during the strike) that don’t have Lemmy equivalents. But I really don’t browse. The only time I get on there is to check reactions to big events (football games, new movies, etc). And even then it’s pretty rare.

        • Jeffool @lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          To anyone else out there thinking about this? Do it. I took over /c/gamedev a couple of months back. Not because I dislike anytging about r/gamedev, but because I want more than one place for that kind of thing on the Internet, and am beginning less of a fan of reddit itself.

          (And yes, it’s slow going, especially with the holidays and job hunting. But I’m okay with that.)

            • Jeffool @lemmy.world
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              15 hours ago

              Hey, I’m just a hobbyist. (I’ve tooled around with the programming and made a few things I never released, but I work in journalism, and not games journalism!) If there’s a community you want to help, the best thing you can do is comment, upvote, and when possible, make a post. And if you want to RUN one, trying is better than just letting things not exist. If people don’t like it, they can downvote your posts. That’s fine too.

              • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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                15 hours ago

                I’m a professional embedded systems engineer, and I do have some hobby projects related to game dev, and I do intend to share when I have something shareable!

                • Jeffool @lemmy.world
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                  14 hours ago

                  You’re closer to a “gamedev” than me, then. You’re an actual “dev” of some type! That said, I’m still trying to find the character of /c/gamedev, so feel free to toss in things you want to see there.

        • Omega@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          I appreciate the support. I actually do post in those situations. And when I say there isn’t a Lemmy equivalent, I mean those communities are dead.

          I just like to see what other people’s reactions are, and I like to see some of other people’s content from time to time. Also, I don’t mind supporting those subs that stood up to the 3rd party app purge.

    • MimicJar@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      That won’t happen. As Twitter dies those users have to go somewhere. While Reddit isn’t a direct competitor as a service, it is in terms of time/eyeballs.

      Ideally folks would move to Mastodon/Lemmy/etc, but that’s a different problem.

      • 3dmvr@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        Issue is bluesky is where they’re going but from what I’ve read a bridge could be made? Still very new to this, not sure how that would work.

    • ipkpjersi@lemmy.ml
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      18 hours ago

      Or until 2 days, like most (or many) of the subreddits participating in the blackout lol

  • skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de
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    19 hours ago

    Reddit’s response to this will reveal where Reddit likely falls on the Spectrum of Evil. They’re a privately-held company, so any possible protection money they may have paid to the Nazis won’t be visible like Meta’s and such until the FEC report is (likely never) released in 3 months.

    • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
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      14 hours ago

      Didn’t they recently go public? They’re traded as RDDT on the New York Stock Exchange.

      • Pringles@lemm.ee
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        4 hours ago

        Yes, they went public last year. And despite all the gloating on lemmy about a drop in share price right after the ipo, it’s up 500% since then.

        Edit: 300%

    • Phoenixz@lemmy.ca
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      19 hours ago

      Can’t say for sure, but knowing spez, Reddit Inc willl be bleep Trump’s bleep harder than a Philippine bleep on a black Friday sale…

      50 bucks say that within 6 months Reddit will have a policy that prohibits reddit subs from blocking twatter links.

      • 3dmvr@lemm.ee
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        13 hours ago

        I would not take that bet lol, i guarantee they are tweaking over this and scared about how this effects shareholders, they should be more worried about all the sus nsfw stuff right next to ads for “wholesome” companies

        • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 hours ago

          We’re currently conducting a vote on dbzer0 for it via a pinned post.

          Last I checked the count was overwhelmingly for banning links to X.

      • Psythik@lemmy.world
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        17 hours ago

        LMAO well said. It sucks that we really don’t have a decent alternative to reddit. I miss my niche subs.

        Digg should have never released V4. It was reddit’s only competition, but now it’s a soulless, corporate curated media platform. You can’t even comment anymore.

  • Vipsu@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Honestly the fact how bad user experience X is for unregistered users should be reason enough to ban links to X.

    • estranho@lemmy.ca
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      9 hours ago

      The experience for unregistered users on Reddit is almost as bad as twitter, I don’t think Reddit cares about that.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    What a coincidence, I’ve been banning all links to reddit. This is working out great.