Social media platform Reddit has temporarily banned the r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit following a post by billionaire Elon Musk claiming that users there had broken the law. Reddit said the community was being suspended for 72 hours due to the ‘prevalence of violent content’.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), a user called ‘Reddit lies’ posted screenshots from r/WhitePeopleTwitter where people were discussing the identities of Musk’s DOGE employees who helped him take control of various systems within the US federal government in recent days.
In response to that post, Musk wrote, “They have broken the law.”
Shortly thereafter, r/WhitePeopleTwitter faced a temporary ban, with a message on its page (via Engadget) stating, “This subreddit has been temporarily banned due to the prevalence of violent content. Inciting and glorifying violence, or doxing, is against Reddit’s platform-wide rules. It will reopen in 72 hours, during which time Reddit will support moderators and provide resources to keep Reddit a healthy place for discussion and debate”.
Reportedly, Reddit also recently banned a subreddit called r/IsElonDeadYet for similarly violating its rules on posting violent content.
Musk has reportedly been using a group of young engineers at the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, with little government experience to complete his takeover of the US federal government in recent days.
Notably, DOGE is not a government department but a team within the then Trump administration that has been given a broad mandate to cut US government spending, reduce the size of the federal workforce and bring more efficiency to the bureaucracy.
However, Musk’s allies have been hired by several federal agencies, and Musk has said it is against the law to reveal their names online.
Recently, Musk’s DOGE gained access to the US Treasury, which is responsible for distributing around $6 trillion in annual payments on behalf of the US government.