A protest movement has exploded across Reddit following Elon Musk’s gesture during President Trump’s inauguration, which critics claimed looked like a Nazi salute.
Subreddit moderators, who run topic-focused communities across the platform, like an NBA subreddit, have been banning group members from posting links to X, Musk’s social media platform, to protest the tech tycoon’s controversial arm gesture, according to an NBC News report.
More than 50 subreddits – ranging in size from a few dozen members to millions, totaling at least 40 million members across the communities – issued bans this week, the report said.
Typically, the communities contain many non-active members.
Reddit hosts around 100,000 active subreddits.
“Last night, at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and known alt-right personality, showed the world who he truly is, and performed a full Sieg Heil Nazi salute not once, but twice,” said the post announcing an X ban in the subreddit for “Destiny 2,” an online game.
A Reddit spokesperson emphasized that the X link bans are user-driven, not an official ban from the platform. Reddit has a longstanding commitment to free speech, the spokesperson told The Post.
During a rally following Trump’s inauguration, Musk gave a speech thanking the crowd “for making it happen.”
He placed his right hand on his chest and then extended his arm at an upward slant, with his palm facing down. He turned around and repeated the gesture, adding, “My heart goes out to you. It is thanks to you that the future of civilization is assured.”
“The man is without a doubt, a neo-Nazi,” the “Destiny 2” moderator wrote, adding that any members posting Nazi ideology or hate speech will be blocked “on sight” without a chance to appeal.
The moderator accused Musk of allowing blatantly racist posts to stay up on X, and changing the platform’s algorithm to promote “alt-right” content.
Musk referred to the allegations of him making a Nazi salute as “dirty tricks” and “propaganda.”
The Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit against antisemitism, came to Musk’s defense on his own social media platform.
“It seems that @elonmusk made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm, not a Nazi salute,” the ADL wrote in a post on X on Monday.
“Thanks guys,” Musk responded, with a crying laughing emoji.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also claimed Musk was being “falsely smeared.”
Meanwhile, dozens of other subreddits are discussing whether to join in the bans.
The subreddit for Formula One racing, which has 4.8 million members, announced they were banning X links on a trial basis, with the intention of a permanent ban in the future.
“Our main concern with a full ban is that while many F1 journalists have joined Bluesky, teams, drivers & FOM have not,” the moderator wrote, referring to an X-alternative that has welcomed creators retreating from the Musk-owned platform.
“But we also realize that it’s a chicken or the egg problem and 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,” the post said.
On Thursday, the Tesla and SpaceX founder addressed the allegations again with a post making jokes about the Holocaust.
“Don’t say Hess to Nazi accusations! Some people will Goebbels anything down!” Musk wrote.
“Bet you did nazi that coming,” he added, with another laughing emoji.
This time, the ADL spoke out against the post.
“Making inappropriate and highly offensive jokes that trivialize the Holocaust only serve to minimize the evil and inhumanity of Nazi crimes, denigrate the suffering of both victims and survivors and insult the memory of the six million Jews murdered in the Shoah,” the ADL wrote.
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