guides
What's Up With All The 'Proposals To Ban X.com Links' On Reddit? The Anti-Twitter Subreddit Movement Explained
Sports-related subreddits are driving a movement to ban all links that redirect people to X / Twitter after Elon Musk's controversial hand gesture at the post-inaugural rally earlier this week.
Musk has since garnered immense criticism for making a hand movement many are likening to a "Nazi salute" on January 20th, leading sports subreddits like /r/LiverpoolFC and /r/CHIBears to call for bans on all links that lead to his website, citing their sporting club's values and the history of sporting players who were involved in crushing Nazi forces in WWII.
The protest movement quickly spread to non-sporting subreddits as well, with many people citing how they oftentimes can't view X links at all, given that the site closed off viewership from those without X accounts. These subreddits called for their moderators to limit direct links to X, with some making concessions for screenshots instead.
Here's a recap of how the "proposal to ban X.com links" trend kicked off earlier this week and what people are saying about it.
Where Did The 'Proposal To Ban X.com Links' Movement Begin?
On Tuesday, January 21st, 2025, several Reddit sports communities began hosting polls and discussions about whether they should enforce a ban on links to the Elon Musk-owned social networking site X, formerly known as Twitter.
The earliest known post that seemingly kicked off the trend was made by Redditor /u/BobBastrd, who wrote on the subreddit /r/Hockey, "Can we ban twitter links now?" The post continued, "Can we stop posting twitter links please? I don't mind skipping a highlight if it's [only] on there. And even then there's surely alternatives elsewhere," gathering over 33,000 upvotes in a day.
Other subreddits saw similar viral posts pop up on January 21st, with Redditor /u/Yopeman posting to /r/LiverpoolFC, writing, "Proposal to ban X.com links." The post continued, "Seen this on a few other football club subreddits – seems like a no brainer to me, especially given the values of our club."
Redditors from soccer club subreddits like /r/Barca[3] and /r/ChelseaFC[4] reposted the /r/LiverpoolFC post, proposing the same ban on X.com links. The proposals received widespread support from numerous Redditors who wanted to do something in protest of Elon Musk, given the controversy he incited by making a hand gesture many likened to a Nazi salute at a post-inaugural rally on January 20th, 2025.
How Did The 'Proposal To Ban X.com Links' Movement Spread?
More sport-related subreddits began seeing posts about a "Proposal to ban X.com links" gain traction on January 21st, 2025, including /r/Formula1, where Redditor /u/lauraslaw wrote, "Even changes such as only allowing Twitter/X screenshots rather than sharing direct links, this would at least reduce the traffic going to the site," gathering over 41,000 upvotes in a day.
On January 21st, /r/MadeMeSmile moderator /u/Llim made a post with the title, "Would it make you smile if we banned all links to Twitter?" The post stated:
Most of the posts in r/MadeMeSmile contain content that is hosted directly on reddit, and so our community would not be significantly affected by this one way or the other. Any comments that contain links to Twitter would be automatically removed; there's not many of these to begin with, so again, the impact would be small. But it would make the mods smile….
Also on January 21st, /r/law user and Redditor /u/orangejulius made a post for other moderators considering the X ban, saying that the /r/law subreddit had banned links to X without major inconvenience when Elon Musk reinstated Dom Lucre's account despite him posting CSAM.
Did Anyone Disagree With The 'Proposal To Ban X.com Links' Movement on Reddit?
Not everyone agreed with the proposed ban on X links, with Redditors like /u/Curse06 posting to the subreddit /r/TrueUnpopularOpinion, writing, "Leftwing redditors trying to get X links banned in other reddit groups is peak patheticness," gathering over 400 upvotes in a day.
Meanwhile, X users like @Grummz and @Reddit_lies made posts criticizing the movement, saying that Reddit will die without links to X.
Numerous memes mocking the proposal to ban X / Twitter links on Reddit also appeared during the same timeframe, such as one posted to /r/dankmemes using the Say The Line Bart format and another using the Drakeposting format to call fellow Redditors hypocrites.
For the full history of the Reddit "Proposal To Ban X.com Links" Movement, be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry for more information.
