Reddit community banned after Elon Musk claims users were breaking the law with comments about his employees

A Reddit community was banned this week after Elon Musk claimed the participants of the subreddit had broken the law.

Not content with being the world's richest man, CEO of SpaceX, and head of the newly formed Department of Government Efficiency in Washington, Elon Musk is now flexing his power on Reddit.

While Musk has already had a pretty public spat with the founder of Wikipedia, he's continuing to put another online community in his crosshairs. Reddit is currently in the Top 10 most-visited sites worldwide, with over 100,000 active subreddits reported as of January 2025. Sadly, it's currently down to at least 99,999 as one popular subreddit has been slapped with the ban hammer.

As reported by Engadget, Elon Musk's complaints have seemingly led to the r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit being temporarily banned.

While it's only a 72-hour ban, Redditors have been warned to cool it with their vitriol toward Musk and his DOGE employees.

If you currently head to the r/WhitePeopleTwitter subreddit, you're greeted by a message that reads: "This subreddit has been temporarily banned due to a prevalence of violent content. Inciting and glorifying violence or doxing are against Reddit’s platform-wide Rules."

The outlet says it comes after identities of those who reportedly helped DOGE take over federal government systems began to leak and the Reddit community turned against them. With the names revealed, there were comments that included the likes of, "Drag their f**kin bodies, cuz," "This Nazi stooge needs to be shot," and, "Pink mist them all' - referring to the act of obliterating someone with a rocket or an IED.

One post on X shared screenshots and wrote: "r/WhitePeopleTwitter is now calling for the public execution of the DOGE software developers."

This was then reshared by Musk himself, with the tech billionaire adding: "They have broken the law."

There's been much controversy online amid reports that a largely young group of engineers, some fresh out of college, has helped Musk take control of secure systems in the likes of USAid and the Treasury Department.

While Engadget says that revealing the names of DOGE employees is not a crime, Reddit is clearly taking these threats of violence seriously.

It comes after interim US Attorney Ed Martin wrote a letter to Musk and vowed to keep DOGE staff 'safe'. Sharing a screenshot of the letter, its content reads: "We must keep all of our American government employees safe and we must protect the American people's property."

Martin asks Musk to utilize him and his staff to keep the DOGE workers safe, throwing shade at the Biden administration and calling out its handling of the Atifa and BLM movements.

Despite r/WhitePeopleTwitter's ban being temporary, Reddit has apparently permanently pulled the plug on the r/IsElonDeadYet subreddit for breaking conduct rules on violence.

Musk remains an unpopular figure on Reddit, with the aftermath of his accused 'Nazi salute' leading to numerous subreddits saying they were banning links to X.