Musk wasn’t happy about the speech on Reddit.

Summary

Elon Musk privately pressured Reddit CEO Steve Huffman to address content moderation after publicly criticizing Reddit on X for banning links and allegedly hosting violent content.

Shortly after Musk’s messages, Reddit imposed a 72-hour ban on the “WhitePeopleTwitter” subreddit, citing violent content, and deleted a thread Musk highlighted.

Reddit denies external influence but acknowledges evaluating reports seriously.

The controversy stirred discussions among Reddit moderators, some mocking Musk as a “giant baby.” Musk has not commented on the situation.

  • drhodl@lemmy.world
    42·
    10 days ago

    Reddit, or at least the subs I frequented, is a cesspool of russian trolls and bots. I made the apparent mistake of calling a couple of trolls out in the r/Europe sub and asked why they weren’t in Kursk, and pffft…permanent ban from all of reddit for “inciting violence”. I think my blood pressure has improved since then, tbh.

        • Serinus@lemmy.world
          9·
          10 days ago

          It was legitimately funny, when it was still a joke. The memes were good. There was no way that idiot was going to be a serious contender. It was all in good fun.

          At least until someone would say, “you know this is just a joke, right?” Any kind of self-awareness was banned within seconds. Now I don’t know if you’re familiar with volunteer moderators, but it’s pretty rare that they catch that kind of volume 24 hours a day within seconds.

          I fully believe there were state-level troll farms operated by a hostile foreign government moderating that subreddit.

          … and now they’re applying that to the entire site.

          • drhodl@lemmy.world
            3·
            10 days ago

            That would not surprise me in the slightest. Drumph had a lot of help, starting with those fucking “actors” who cheered him as he descended the golden elevator. He certainly didn’t get there based on merit LOL.

      • drhodl@lemmy.world
        6·
        10 days ago

        Not sure about bots, but I’ve certainly encountered some trolls. And some people grafted to Elmo’s starfish. At least they aren’t a protected species here…

  • __Goblin@lemmy.caEnglish
    41·
    10 days ago

    This is what brought me to lemmy after getting threatened to be banned for up voting anti trump and musk post. Fuck trump, fuck musk and fuck spez. Fucking goofs.

      • __Goblin@lemmy.caEnglish
        5·
        10 days ago

        Yeah I refuse to support nazi supporters. Spez has done some dumb shit over the years but this was the final straw. I’ve only been here about a week but it already seems like a much better environment.

      • __Goblin@lemmy.caEnglish
        5·
        10 days ago

        Thanks, I’ve really been enjoying it. I was on redd it for about 12 years and it won’t be missed.

        • Zedd_Prophecy@lemmy.world
          4·
          10 days ago

          14 years invested at Reddit and the latest bans and bs moderation was the last straw for me. Spent a whole day hand deleting all of my comments and posts and subsequently my account. Fuck Spez. Asskisser and right wing sympathetic.

          • __Goblin@lemmy.caEnglish
            2·
            10 days ago

            That’s a long time, but we can’t stop someone else from being a spineless fuck so best to move on. With enough of us leaving hopefully they’ll start to feel it.

  • mint_tamas@lemmy.world
    32·
    10 days ago

    Imagine being literally the richest man on earth and using your influence to delete mean comments that people wrote about you on the internet.

  • MuskyMelon@lemmy.world
    29·
    10 days ago

    So Mr Free Speech just forced a 3rd party to restrict free speech like he does on his free speech platform. Fucking hypocrite.

    AND here’s proof /u/spez is a fucking pussy.

      • M137@lemmy.world
        292·
        10 days ago

        Really? It was less active than Reddit about a year ago, but now it’s not that different in terms of how often the front page changes. Browse by all and just block whichever instances and communities you don’t want to see. I’d much rather have fewer comments than most of them being bots and children spamming dumb shit.

      • running_ragged@lemmy.world
        8·
        10 days ago

        There’s less posts sure, but when I left last year so much of Reddits front page content was just badly reposted bot garbage anyway.

        There were some specific communities where there we enough active real people posted to keep it interesting, but I could tell then where it was going, and as far as I can tell I wasn’t wrong.

        Artificially created content to force or fake engagement to drive ad sales isn’t any less dead than here.

        Also the fact that you’re giving your content up for free so spez can lock it behind paywalls is just insane.

      • the_riviera_kid@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        10 days ago

        My own experience has been the opposite, I’ve gotten more engagement in my short time here than in the last year or two on reddit. Plus no one here is trying to ban my account every time I point out trump/ musk is a big ol poopy pants.

      • Bender12@lemmy.world
        6·
        10 days ago

        I’ve been here since Apigate. It’s getting more active, but not the same. However, I’ve found myself actually scrolling less due to the less content, which has been a good thing for my mental health.

        And the obligatory F Spez, F Elon.

      • Ironfist@lemmy.caEnglish
        5·
        10 days ago

        Reddit didn’t become a giant in one day either. The more people you tell about lemmy the more people will use it.

      • Zerlyna@lemmy.worldEnglish
        51·
        10 days ago

        Flying Squid has disappeared the past month. Very active user. I am worried.

    • Magister@lemmy.world
      11·
      9 days ago

      I moved to Lemmy since the API fiasco, almost 2 years ago, I never posted/voted on reddit since. Sometimes I check some sub for their contents but never ever participate.

      • the_riviera_kid@lemmy.worldEnglish
        7·
        10 days ago

        I tried then and it just didn’t stick for me for some reason so I crawled back to the ex with my head hung in shame. Attempt #2 is sticking though.

          • the_riviera_kid@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            10 days ago

            I think thats why its sticking this time, the user base is a bit larger and it’s a bit more fleshed out. It’s much easier to stick around when there is something to stick around for.

  • GoodOleAmerika@lemmy.world
    16·
    10 days ago

    Yep got a temp 3 day ban on reddit just saying that let’s hope the masked police don’t mess up with someone who has conceal carry license… that is all I said, then boom temp ban.

    Reddit is compromised.

  • CalipherJones@lemmy.worldEnglish
    15·
    10 days ago

    Last time I signed up for Reddit it asked me to pick some of my top interests. One of the options was Elon Musk.

    • pivot_root@lemmy.world
      9·
      10 days ago

      Not at all surprizing. Spez thinks he’s an upcoming Elon-like genius and wants to surround himself with like-minded techbros, but he’s actually a massive Musk bootlicker.

  • KingPorkChop@lemmy.caEnglish
    13·
    10 days ago

    One thing Musk knows how to do well is run and moderate a social media platform.

    Oh wait. Stop. Reverse that.

  • ThePowerOfGeek@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    10 days ago

    That makes sense. Spez is such a spineless dweeb, it checks out that a narcissistic blowhard like Musk would be pushing him around.