The largest global online community of F1 fans has moved to ban the use of X (formerly Twitter) links across its reach.
Reddit’s Formula 1 community boasts almost 5 million users, with the F1 ‘subreddit’ making the decision to ban all external links to the social media network X (formerly Twitter).
Reddit bans X/Twitter links across F1 subreddit
Reddit’s F1 community will no longer be able to post or share links to the X/Twitter platform as the social media giant has moved to ban the platform – initially on a trial basis.
The ban is something many of Reddit’s prominent communities have opted for, following the political connotations of the X platform.
This week, a Reddit user posted a suggestion to ban X links from Reddit’s F1 community, with ‘Lauraslaw’ positing that “I’d like to think the values of most F1 fans generally oppose those of the person running that platform [Elon Musk].
“Even changes such as only allowing Twitter/X screenshots rather than sharing direct links, this would at least reduce the traffic going to the site.”
In the days since the post was published, it gained 47 thousand ‘upvotes’, signalling support for the idea, with the community’s moderator team acknowledging the proposal and putting a plan into action.
24 hours later, X links were banned by the F1 subreddit, with the announcement made revealing that, for now, the ban is temporary in order to assess whether vital information is being missed as a result of the platform being ostracised.
“After yesterday’s proposal, we discussed within the mod team whether a full ban on Twitter [X] content would be feasible,” read the moderator announcement, which has since racked up 53 thousand upvotes.
“We had already been encouraging Bluesky as a source over other platforms, since by not forcing users to log in it is more accessible and it does not suffer from the various other issues affecting Twitter.
“Our main concern with a full ban is that while many F1 journalists have joined Bluesky, teams, drivers & FOM have not. But we also realise that it’s a chicken or the egg problem and as a community of almost 5 million, we probably have a non-trivial effect as to what platform is the native source for F1 news.
“In the end, we’ve settled on the following approach: For a trial period, we will ban all content from Twitter with the only exception of screenshots of relevant posts by teams, drivers & F1 that are not available on any other platform. Even in case of major breaking news, we ask you to post links to the press releases or a screenshot of the post from Instagram, with a link in the comments.
“We hope that this trial period will provide a nudge for F1 journalists, creators, and teams to make their content available on alternative platforms as we intend to make this ban permanent in some form.”
What’s the reason for the Reddit ban on X/Twitter?
Formerly Twitter, the platform was used by media sites and journalists as a quick-fire way to disseminate information in real-time, giving it a huge advantage over platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
However, the purchase of Twitter by businessman Elon Musk – who rebranded it as X – has seen the platform gain a reputation in some quarters as becoming increasingly associated with right-wing ideology, with algorithm changes introduced under Musk have led to an alleged rise in the accessibility to problematic and divisive content.
This follows the removal of content moderation protocols, as well as the removal of account verification in favour of payment plans – allowing users to purchase increased visibility behind the veil of anonymity.
Since Twitter was purchased, the platform has collapsed in value – it is believed to have been worth $5.7 billion in 2022 and is now worth a reported $673 million, representing around 88 percent of its purchase value lost.
Separate from X, Musk also owns electric car manufacturer Tesla, space programme engineering giant SpaceX, and – due to his role in Trump’s campaign – now heads up Trump’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ (DOGE).
What is Bluesky?
Following the election of Trump as US President for a second term – a campaign success that saw Musk play a key role through his use of his social media platform to disseminate information, factual or otherwise – a rival to X emerged.
Bluesky, which began life as a Twitter research project in 2019, became an independent platform in 2021 and the links between the two companies were severed following Musk’s purchase of Twitter in 2022.
Bluesky has seen its user count soar in recent months, rising from 15 million in October to 27 million in January 2025.
The F1 community has slowly established itself on Bluesky, with journalists, writers, content creators, and publications (including PlanetF1.com) setting up growing profiles.
Bluesky bears striking similarities to the Twitter platform before algorithm changes made in recent years, having been founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Its current CEO is Jay Graber.
“Our preferred alternative platform is Bluesky and, to help avoid impersonations, we have created a list of verified F1-related accounts on Bluesky,” the Reddit moderators said in a message to journalists, photographers, creators, and other F1 personalities.
“This list is used both for feeds & starter packs on Bluesky, but also for AutoModerator here on Reddit.
“We are adding new verified accounts whenever we come across them, but please contact us on Bluesky or send a modmail here on Reddit to accelerate this process. We want to assist with this transition and we also want to hear your feedback throughout this trial period, so please get in touch.”
Will Reddit reverse its ban on X/Twitter?
While Bluesky has seen explosive growth, the platform is yet to be embraced by the drivers and teams. As a result, with the possibility of vital information not being directly shareable on Reddit, the moderators have made it clear the ban could be merely temporary if it proves an unpopular move in the medium term.
“First of all, sometimes mods make bad decisions even if with the best intentions. (For example in 2015 this subreddit banned images & gifs, which caused a controversy that was only resolved after Will Buxton stepped in to mediate the situation.)” the Reddit moderators said.
“Second of all, this is one of the strictest approaches to Twitter content, and strict bans like this can have unintended consequences, so we might need to later refine this ban. We intend the trial period to last at least until the first races of the new season, after which a final form of the ban would be implemented.
“This subreddit has had restrictions on what content can be posted for a very long time. We’ve had the source rating system that labeled the quality of news sites and is still used for removing sensationalist and unoriginal articles. We’ve also had limitations on Instagram due to its requirement for an account to view posts.
“There’s no doubt that, over the past years, Twitter has become a low-quality source: the login requirements, the flood of bots, the prioritisation of content from paying users and promotion of sensationalist content.
“But unlike with news sites in our source-rating system, for Twitter, there wasn’t really an alternative.
“But now that viable alternatives are emerging and the proposal thread has shown that the community prefers those alternatives, we think it’s time to try and see how the subreddit works without content from Twitter.”
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