Many Reddit users are boycotting the social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, after Elon Musk twice made a gesture during President Trump’s inaugural celebration that drew comparisons to the Nazi salute.
Mr. Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform, was speaking at a celebratory rally after Mr. Trump’s installment as the 47th president on Monday when he grunted, placed his hand over his heart and lifted his arm with the palm facing down in a hail to the audience.
Although Mr. Musk played down the criticism, speculation about the gesture’s meaning broke out online, including on Reddit, where people gather in thousands of forums known as subreddits to discuss niche interests, including hobbies, sports, celebrity gossip and geopolitics.
By Tuesday, a proposal had emerged in dozens of Reddit groups across a wide spectrum of interests: Many users wanted to place a ban on linking to X posts as a way of boycotting the platform and Mr. Musk.
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Once considered one of the darkest parts of the internet, Reddit has turned around in recent years to become a handy resource for people who are searching for news, entertainment and personal advice. Its chief executive, Steve Huffman, has maintained a lower profile than his predecessors and other social media figures like Mr. Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Meta.
Reddit’s embrace of volunteer moderators, along with its policing of harassment and other toxic behaviors, helped it transform how users interact in its forums.
“It is the public square. It’s where people meet these days, and it is a place where people can organize,” said David Dunning, a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, who has studied political beliefs and polarization.
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