Social news aggregation site Reddit successfully raised $300 million in a financing round this week that leaves the website valued at $3 billion. As expected, China-based multinational technology conglomerate Tencent Holdings invested $150 million into the link-sharing website. While the investment falls far short of an acquisition, Redditors took to the platform to express concerns over the potential free speech implications of a leading Chinese firm becoming a shareholder in Reddit, a platform often associated, sometimes awkwardly, with a devotion to free expression. Reddit, the self-described “front page of the internet,” was banned in China last August, though since then some users have managed to access the site. At TIME, Tara Law surveys the alarms sounded in subreddits both before and after the financing round:
Most of the backlash has been in the form of a number of posts to one of the site’s most popular groups, r/pics, which has over 20 million subscribers. Redditors have written that they feared the site, which is famously a bastion of free speech (with some exceptions) and the home of many niche communities, could end up facing censorship as is seen in China. There, the government blocks references to the bloody 1989 massacre in the Beijing square, as well as images that are more subtly subversive, such as [Winnie-thePooh] the iconic and lovable Disney bear.
Since the deal was first reported five days ago, numerous Reddit users posted threads and memes criticizing the investment, arguing that it would cause Reddit to clamp down on freedom of expression outside of China. One post, which included the iconic image of a single man stopping a tank in Tiananmen Square, was by far the most popular post of the week and “up-voted” more than 200,000 times.
Some Reddit users posted Winnie the Pooh as an example of how arbitrary Chinese censors could be. [See prior CDT coverage of this protest meme]
[…] “Reddit is now funded by Chinese investors, so let’s remember that President Xi Jinping is so insecure in a meme that he banned Winnie the Pooh nationwide,” wrote Redditor kproxurworld.
[…] Others also posted the iconic image of a man standing in front of a tank in Tiananmen Square. [Source]
Reddit front page is a lot of fun right now: pic.twitter.com/yQD5webZtm
— MSL (@MiaInChina) February 8, 2019
We were just blacked out in #China again. Here is the story that never made it on our air here— and the offensive image. @CNBC @CNBCi @reddit pic.twitter.com/u5Tc4Gosji
— Eunice Yoon (@onlyyoontv) February 12, 2019
With #China's Tencent investing US$150m into @Reddit, users are going out of their way to post an image Beijing has spent three decades trying to suppress… https://t.co/5Q0RxzY7no pic.twitter.com/6VC4rif3lf
— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) February 8, 2019
This is always a worry for tools and accounts we've been using for years especially journos. If a China-based company buys out the platform, Beijing can legally obtain full access to user data.
— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) February 8, 2019
And under the 2017 National Intelligence Law, Beijing can compel any firm/organisation/individual to cooperative w/the authorities. How can that work for Chinese-owned media outlets who may rely on source secrecy?
Screenshot: @QZ. pic.twitter.com/skjSZBZUgX— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) February 8, 2019
At ZDNet Charlie Osborne and Zero Day provide context on the “irony of Reddit joining forces with Tencent, especially considering the platform is banned in China,” that Redditors highlighted in their posts:
Tencent is the owner of WeChat, a messaging application which has proven popular to Chinese citizens. The Chinese ruling party requires that social networks operating in the country offer “healthy” environments, and in November, this led to a mass clean-up of the app in light of the government’s demands.
[…] One particular image posted of Winnie The Pooh with the phrase, “Given that Reddit just took a $150 million investment from a Chinese censorship powerhouse, I thought it would be nice to post this picture of Winnie The Pooh before our new glorious overlords decide we cannot post it anymore,” has been upvoted thousands of times.
[…] Another issue beyond a Reddit-style Great Wall of China that has been raised is the potential for data collection. However, considering the style of funding and that Tencent has not acquired Reddit — nor the data on users it holds — this worry, at least for now, is unwarranted. [Source]
Bloomberg News’ Julie Verhage relays an explanation from Reddit’s CEO on the logic behind the two companies’ new relationship:
Steve Huffman, the chief executive officer of Reddit, said Tencent’s expertise in video games is part of what drew the two companies together. “Video games are one category that’s really popular on Reddit,” Huffman told CNBC.
Spokeswomen for Reddit and Tencent declined to comment on the outcry from users. Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity Investments and Sequoia Capital were among the other investors in the round.
Reddit has an outspoken community that has used the company’s own website to protest against its actions in the past. The site has long been banned in China, according to researcher GreatFire.org. The free speech campaign by Reddit users may ensure that remains the case for some time. [Source]
Global concerns over Chinese tech companies are amplified by the ambiguous line between private corporation and government organization–one made increasingly thin by recent legislation aimed at “ideological security,” including the National Security Law and the Cybersecurity Law. These concerns were recently given a global media spotlight following the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in Canada on a U.S. extradition warrant. On Twitter, Chinese tech-watcher Elliott Zaagman describes Tencent’s unique place within this ambiguity:
Thread:#Reddit, the "front page of the internet" is raising a new round of funding.
The company leading that funding round has a room in its headquarters designated to the study of "Xi Jinping Thought." (1/n) pic.twitter.com/3oCmGlTS8E
— Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) February 6, 2019
That company is #Tencent, the Shenzhen-based tech giant behind WeChat, but also a prolific investor, with a finger in just about every pie of the Chinese internet, and increasingly, outside of China as well. (2/n)https://t.co/epupG6ZIZk
— Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) February 6, 2019
Tencent's founder and chairman, Ma Huateng, is a member of the Chinese Communist Party, and holds a seat on China's National People's Congress (NPC). It's thought that he's considered reliable in the eyes party leadership, in contrast with Alibaba's showboating Jack Ma. (3/n)
— Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) February 6, 2019
That being said, Tencent has a reputation for being hands-off with the companies in which they invest. They're publicly-traded, and while not exactly a shining example of transparency, are not a thinly-veiled arm of the party in the way that, say, Huawei is. (4/n)
— Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) February 6, 2019
However, as is happening throughout China's tech firms, the party has been taking greater control in directing decision-making and corporate governance at Tencent. At the same time, the party has been more aggressively promoting its ideology at home and abroad. (5/n)
— Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) February 6, 2019
The ideology promoted by the CCP is one that is illiberal and at odds with the principles of open discourse that important online communities like Reddit are based on. The party has also shown that is has no qualms with promoting censorship outside of China's borders. (6/n)
— Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) February 6, 2019
I want to be clear here: Tencent is a great company. They have a great investment track record. But as the CCP becomes more ideological, more assertive, and more embedded into Chinese tech companies, these are issues US regulators and Reddit mgmt and users must consider. (7/n)
— Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) February 6, 2019
Tencent and other Chinese tech companies should be able to do a deal like this. But the party stink is just too pungent for anyone to ignore. (8/n)
— Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) February 6, 2019
Last month, Zaagman tweeted a stream detailing the requirements and pressure the Party places on influential tech firms in China.
