- cross-posted to:
- reddit@lemmy.world
- 404media@rss.ponder.cat
- cross-posted to:
- reddit@lemmy.world
- 404media@rss.ponder.cat
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.
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.
Yes, but on the other hand…
Fuck Nazi’s
Can’t argue with that.
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.
If somebody tries, and fails, to rape, I will still call them rapist.
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.
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.
First they banned in person socializing/communication, next will be internet communication/socializing
First they banned in person socializing/communication
They did?
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.
Please do
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
And they’ll eventually not do it considering they are still debating about it. Just do it.
Some have already banned, some are in the process of voting.
Paywalled link
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.
Are there other sites to which links are banned? I don’t really like that policy for anything no matter how nefarious. Unless it’s malware or a liability and going to land the visitor in prison.
Porn sites without strict CSAM, malicious injection or spam protection, many individual subs ban extreme right-wing sites, Fox News or opposite left-etc
Links to Russian websites and telegram are banned on most of not all subreddits.
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.
Didn’t they recently go public? They’re traded as RDDT on the New York Stock Exchange.
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.
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.
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
Until spaz says that’s a no go and forces them to allow them. Just don’t use reddit
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.
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.
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.
Be the change you want to see in the Fediverse.
deleted by creator
deleted by creator
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.)
Wish I were a game developer so I could help out!
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.
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!
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.
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.
Or until 2 days, like most (or many) of the subreddits participating in the blackout lol
I can’t believe it’s taken this long. I get disappointed when microblogmeme jpegs don’t have 2 @ symbols in them.
Maybe they will leave oligarch owned social media next.
Honestly the fact how bad user experience X is for unregistered users should be reason enough to ban links to X.
The experience for unregistered users on Reddit is almost as bad as twitter, I don’t think Reddit cares about that.
What a coincidence, I’ve been banning all links to reddit. This is working out great.
So that’s what it takes before people think of leaving twitter.
People have been leaving Twitter in waves for years. This is just another one.
They have concepts of leaving, but addiction is a removed. Most will stay.
Have had twitter blocked in my dns server for ages. All the big social media companies. Totally worth it.