Elon Musk pressured Reddit’s CEO on content moderation

Elon Musk and Steve Huffman. | Image: Getty Images / The Verge

Nearly 2 months ago, Elon Musk went connected a nationalist crusade against Reddit. 

On X, helium said it was “insane” that subreddits were blocking links to the level successful protestation of him appearing to springiness a Nazi salute. A fewer days later, helium posted that Reddit users advocating for unit against Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) employees had “broken the law.”

As it turns out, Musk wasn’t lone utilizing his X level to telephone retired contented connected Reddit. He was besides privately messaging Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, according to radical acquainted with the matter.

Shortly aft the 2 CEOs exchanged substance messages, Reddit enacted a 72-hour prohibition connected the “WhitePeopleTwitter” subreddit that hosted the thread astir DOGE employees, citing the “prevalence of convulsive content.” The specific thread Musk shared connected X was besides deleted, including hundreds of comments that didn’t telephone for unit oregon doxxing. (So far, Reddit doesn’t look to person intervened successful immoderate moderator decisions to prohibition X links from the subreddits they oversee.)

When asked astir Musk and Huffman’s correspondence, Reddit spokesperson Gina Antonini sent the pursuing statement: “We instrumentality immoderate study of Reddit argumentation vi …

Read the afloat communicative astatine The Verge.