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How would tencent owning a minor stake in reddit allow it to censor the site? Or is this outrage mostly because tencent is a Chinese firm? I mean, censorship o

How would tencent owning a minor stake in reddit allow it to censor the site? Or is this outrage mostly because tencent is a Chinese firm? I mean, censorship only works if you have the government backing you, are people legitimately fear the US government is going to bow down to a Chinese company?

throwaway2048 8y ago
Plenty of companies with interests in China have voluntarily acceded to Chinese demands over stuff like the naming of Taiwan.
adrianmonk 8y ago
I'm not sure I necessarily see it either. It's not majority ownership. They can't just tell Reddit to censor. On the other hand, you could see it as a conflict of interest. If Reddit thinks they want an additional round of investment later, they might be tempted to do things to ingratiate themselves. Also, people are just very touchy right now about foreign powers trying to influence American public opinion on social media. It already happened once. It's not just a hypothetical risk.
Digory 8y ago
Imagine WeChat as a default Reddit login or client. It’s the cheapest user base that could rival Facebook or google to kick off a global payment platform. And give China an unprecedented peek into educated Americans’ porn preferences, to boot. The social credit / soft pressure side is more concerning than “censorship.”
weego 8y ago
It's a bunch of edgelords posting NSFL videos of Tiananmen trying to create a self-fulfilling focus of outrage.
asdff 8y ago
There was a very similar reaction years ago when Conde Nast bought reddit about how things would now be censored by the corporate overlord and the platform would be inundated by ads and sponsored posts pushed to the top just like what happened with Digg. It never happened and the outrage came to pass. As an aside: how does reddit look like a good investment for tencent? The size of the site alone? I bet 9/10 reddit users use an adblocker, and even top top comments and posts from massive subreddits might only be guilded a couple times.
- dehrmann 8y ago
  At least Condé Nast is a privately held magazine publisher. Separation of church and state is already part of their DNA. > how does reddit look like a good investment for tencent? The size of the site alone? Good question. It's either user count, betting than an IPO is soon, a bet that it can have Facebook-level appeal (and ad targeting), or dumb money that's tired of sitting on the sidelines. Not sure if I buy any of those stories.
dehrmann 8y ago
If they get a seat on the board, they become a pretty loud voice in the company.
thereare5lights 8y ago
It wouldn't. It was just the normal kneejerk reaction to any China related on Reddit.

throwaway2048 8y ago

Plenty of companies with interests in China have voluntarily acceded to Chinese demands over stuff like the naming of Taiwan.

adrianmonk 8y ago

I'm not sure I necessarily see it either. It's not majority ownership. They can't just tell Reddit to censor. On the other hand, you could see it as a conflict of interest. If Reddit thinks they want an additional round of investment later, they might be tempted to do things to ingratiate themselves. Also, people are just very touchy right now about foreign powers trying to influence American public opinion on social media. It already happened once. It's not just a hypothetical risk.

Digory 8y ago

Imagine WeChat as a default Reddit login or client. It’s the cheapest user base that could rival Facebook or google to kick off a global payment platform. And give China an unprecedented peek into educated Americans’ porn preferences, to boot. The social credit / soft pressure side is more concerning than “censorship.”

weego 8y ago

It's a bunch of edgelords posting NSFL videos of Tiananmen trying to create a self-fulfilling focus of outrage.

asdff 8y ago

There was a very similar reaction years ago when Conde Nast bought reddit about how things would now be censored by the corporate overlord and the platform would be inundated by ads and sponsored posts pushed to the top just like what happened with Digg. It never happened and the outrage came to pass. As an aside: how does reddit look like a good investment for tencent? The size of the site alone? I bet 9/10 reddit users use an adblocker, and even top top comments and posts from massive subreddits might only be guilded a couple times.

dehrmann 8y ago
At least Condé Nast is a privately held magazine publisher. Separation of church and state is already part of their DNA. > how does reddit look like a good investment for tencent? The size of the site alone? Good question. It's either user count, betting than an IPO is soon, a bet that it can have Facebook-level appeal (and ad targeting), or dumb money that's tired of sitting on the sidelines. Not sure if I buy any of those stories.

dehrmann 8y ago

If they get a seat on the board, they become a pretty loud voice in the company.

thereare5lights 8y ago

It wouldn't. It was just the normal kneejerk reaction to any China related on Reddit.