For an ever growing list of reasons, subreddits globally are asking whether or not they should no longer allow links to be shared from X formerly Twitter.
At the time of writing, one such example is the Ireland subreddit which is hosting a poll on the matter. A poll which is strongly suggesting links from the problematic social media platform will be banned. Included for some subreddits is also screenshots from X/Twitter too.
Proposal to ban X.com direct links on this subreddit
byu/KaleidoscopeLeft5511 inireland
Why are Subreddits Moving to Ban X Links?
There are countless reasons why. Since being bought by Elon Musk, Twitter has slipped in quality with usage down 25%. The knock on impact has been never ending accusations that Twitter, rebranded to X under Musk’s leadership, has been overrun with fake accounts spreading right propaganda.
Yesterday, at Trump’s tea party, Musk came under criticism for a gesture which resembled an Austrian man with a funny moustache. The European Union has stepped up a probe into X after Musk began echoing support for German far right party AfD.
While somewhat surprising it took this much for this conversation to happen, it would appear that this is the straw to break the camels back, leading to subreddits posing the question as to whether or not X/Twitter links should be allowed.
Alongside the Ireland subreddit, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Formula 1, Scotland, Cyberpunk and countless other communities with massive memberships are posing the same questions.
Impact of Subreddits Banning X
Reddit provides the internet with a massive amount of traffic. Given the nature of sports journalism, sporting subreddits over-index in this space too. I’m a Liverpool fan and it’s typical to see X links being shared with fitness updates, squads for games or transfer rumours.
Interestingly, the Formula 1 subreddit which is also considering a ban of X links, already encourages the use of Bluesky instead. Which means this could, and hopefully should, mean further growth for Bluesky which seems to be the most likely alternative to the Twitter most of us used to enjoy.
More will become apparent in the coming days as I would wager most subreddit mods are waiting to see what others do before making a move. Polls might be problematic too given they can become overrun with troll accounts etc.
A quick reminder that, yes. It’s still January.
