Overview

/r/WhitePeopleTwitter Ban and NSFW Subreddit Bans refer to a temporary ban on Reddit placed on the /r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit after Elon Musk complained about users of the sub calling for the death of Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) software developers and employees, which was followed by a sudden wave of bans being doled out to NSFW subreddits like /r/boobs and /r/rule34. Some people believed that these bans were connected or that Reddit was preparing to ban pornographic content on the site. The bans took place in early February 2025. Shortly after news of the bans went viral, the bans were lifted from most of the NSFW subreddits, with a Reddit admin claiming the bans were due to a bug.

Background

On February 3rd, 2025, the X^[1] account @reddit_lies posted a screenshot of numerous comments made to a post on the /r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit titled "Muskrat's DOGE Henchmen have identified," presumably referring to the so-called DOGE Zoomer employees whose identities were posted online the day prior. Many of the comments, purportedly taken from threads on the sub, seem to suggest that someone should kill the employees or harm them.

Later that day, Elon Musk quote-reposted the post on X,^[2] writing, "They have broken the law," garnering over 227,000 likes and 42,000 reposts in two days.

Also on February 3rd, the /r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit was banned for 72 hours, with a message noting the decision was due to "a prevalence of violent content" and "inciting and
glorifying violence or doxxing," which are against Reddit's rules.^[3]

Developments

News of the subreddit's ban quickly went viral and spread on the platform. For example, on February 3rd, 2025, Redditor u/JetproTC23 posted a thread about the ban to the /r/SubredditDrama^[4] subreddit, garnering over 32,000 upvotes in two days.

On February 4th, a thread was posted to /r/OutOfTheLoop^[5] about the ban, garnering over 2,000 upvotes in a day. The top-voted reply from Redditor Mentallox with over 2,300 upvotes stated:

Answer: Death threats to Musk and his crew and mods didn't do their jobs. Some of the posters will get the FBI showing up to their doors. If they are on any kind of US visa they are probably FUBAR.

NSFW Subreddit Bans

Following the temporary ban of /r/WhitePeopleTwitter on February 3rd, 2025, a wave of bans was given to several other subreddits, which mainly seemed to be NSFW in nature. Banned subreddits purportedly included /r/Porn, /r/rule34, /r/boobs, /r/HitlerRule34, /r/IsElonDeadYet and /r/drugs.^[6][7][8][9]

Some people hypothesized that these bans were related to the banning of /r/WhitePeopleTwitter, suggesting Elon Musk had something to do with it, possibly to further hide dissenting opinions from him. Others hypothesized that Reddit was preparing to ban all pornographic content on their site.

Ban Reversals / Bug

On February 5th, 2025, Redditor u/Killergryphyn made a post to /r/SubredditDrama^[10] about the bans. Later that day, a Reddit admin, u/Chtorrr, commented^[11] under the post claiming that the bans were due to a bug. In their third edit of the post, they reiterate the claim that the admin said that the bans were due to a bug.

Online Reactions

The bans inspired numerous reactions, memes and theories on social media relating to the controversy as it spread in early February 2025.

For example, on February 5th, 2025, Redditor u/Jellz made a post to /r/memes^[12] titled "Reddit is banning porn subs across the board" about the situation, garnering over 5,500 upvotes in under a day.

Reactions To Admin's 'Bug' Claim

After u/Chtorrr, a Reddit admin, claimed the NSFW subreddit bans were due to the bug on February 5th, 2025, several Redditors under his comment continued to hypothesize that the bans were actually due to a plan for Reddit to ban NSFW content from the site.^[13]

Search Interest

External References