Elon Musk privately pressured Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on content moderation: report

X owner Elon Musk was privately messaging with Reddit CEO Steve Huffman while also putting public pressure on the social media company’s content moderation efforts, The Verge reported Thursday.

Two months ago, several Reddit subreddits started to block links to X in protest of Musk appearing to give the Nazi salute. Musk called the efforts “insane,” while a Reddit spokesperson at the time clarified that Reddit itself wasn’t imposing a ban on the links. A few days later, Musk claimed that Reddit users who were calling for violence against members of his Department of Government Efficiency were breaking the law.

Musk has been a vocal critic of content moderation on social platforms—particularly since buying Twitter, now X, in 2022—to where he’s rolled back many trust and safety policies. At the same time, unironically, he’s been known to restrict links to other platforms on X.

And this certainly isn’t the first time Musk has gone after critics—journalists, users, even employees. Last month, Musk reportedly fired a Tesla manager who criticized Musk for a social media post that used the names of Nazis as wordplay.

The Verge reported that “shortly after” Musk and Huffman talked, Reddit enacted its 72-hour ban on the r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit, saying it was “due to a prevalence of violent content.” Reddit also fully banned a subreddit called r/IsElonDeadYet for breaking rules “against posting violent content.”

The r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit, which has more than three million followers, is mostly made up of users screenshotting posts from Bluesky and X. The r/IsElonDeadYet page consisted of a daily post asking whether he was, in fact, dead or not, according to an archived version of the site in December.

Reddit moderators learned that the two leaders had spoken, according to The Verge, and discussed it. In response to a user who said Musk is allowed to call out death threats, another reportedly said: “Oh, I don’t have any problem with removing rule-breaking content (and taking the respective admin action on said accounts), but I find it a bit problematic that he’s able to exert influence on both public and private institutions.”

Reddit has had ongoing tension with moderators and power users—especially after a policy change requiring some third-party developers to pay much more for its application programming interface led to widespread protests in mid-2023. The company, which went public last year, has struggled to maintain balance between changes from its leadership team and its hundreds of millions of monthly global users.


https://www.fastcompany.com/91307181/elon-musk-privately-pressured-reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-on-content-moderation-report?partner=rss&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=rss+fastcompany&utm_content=rss

Établi 2mo | 27 mars 2025, 20:40:07


Connectez-vous pour ajouter un commentaire

Autres messages de ce groupe

TikTok gives artists new tools to track and boost viral songs

TikTok has boosted the careers of numerous musicians, thanks to their songs—both new and old—going viral. The latest example is Connie Francis’s 1962 hit

3 juin 2025, 23:10:03 | Fast company - tech
Music giants begin negotiating AI licensing rights for labels and artists

As artificial intelligence’s influence continues to spread deeper into pop culture, major record labels are starting negotiations with AI companies to ensure they—and their artists—are prope

3 juin 2025, 20:40:05 | Fast company - tech
This viral app lets users upload fake workouts to Strava

“Believe nothing. not even people’s runs,” a viral post on X reads.

<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provid

3 juin 2025, 18:30:04 | Fast company - tech
AI code-gen startup valuations surge as Big Tech circles

Two years after the launch of ChatGPT, return on investment in generative AI has been e

3 juin 2025, 18:30:02 | Fast company - tech
Does the ‘McMigraine meal’ really help with headaches? TikTok thinks so

Migraine sufferers have heard it all: ice hats, essential oils, ginger tea. The latest advice? Head to McDonald’s and order a large Coca-Cola and fries, dubbed the “McMigraine meal.”

One

3 juin 2025, 16:10:06 | Fast company - tech
These 3 qualities set great AI products apart from the rest

As the founder and board chair of the tech nonprofit Products That Count, I’ve had a front-row seat to AI’s domination of the tech world over the past couple of years. A few years ago, just a sliv

3 juin 2025, 13:40:10 | Fast company - tech