Reddit Bans Forum for Chinese Dissidents, Chinese Government Influence Suspected
On October 15, the Chinese community “real_China_irl” on the well-known social media platform Reddit was permanently banned. The group, or “subreddit,” had more than 100,000 members, consisting of dissidents who are dissatisfied with the Chinese government's censorship and generally oppose the current Chinese government. Most of the members were users of circumvention methods (such as VPNs) in mainland China, as well as overseas Chinese. Discussions in the group often touched on China's political issues through satire and black humor, and have provided a channel for democratic protests such as the Sitong Bridge protest and the White Paper Movement. This ban is another setback for the Chinese liberal community on Reddit, following earlier bans on Chinese community subreddits such as “ChongLangtv,” “Free_XinJiang,” “CLtv,” “QuanLang,” and “Youmo.”
Initially, Reddit officials claimed the reason for the ban was a lack of management, and the community was issued a temporary ban. However, after several users applied to become managers of the forum, the ban was changed to “permanent” and the reason was changed to “violating community rules.” The community members submitted numerous appeals, but were told that the specific reason for the ban could not be disclosed, and the content of the appeals was deleted. On October 15, the day of the ban, a member of the forum created a new subreddit called r/RubaoTV, but it was banned for no reason within three hours. It was not until more than a day later that Reddit officials explained the ban, stating that the reason was that the forum was “used for spam.” Yet, at the time that r/RubaoTV was banned, there were only a few posts. Therefore, some users have speculated that the Chinese authorities had exercised their so-called “long-arm jurisdiction” in order to censor content on social platforms outside the Great Firewall. This speculation was caused by Tencent.
Tencent: Reddit's second largest shareholder
As early as 2016, ByteDance tried to acquire Reddit through a stock swap, which ultimately failed. However, in February 2019, Reddit received $300 million in Series D financing, of which Tencent provided $150 million. Then in 2020, Tencent once again participated in Reddit’s Series E round of financing. So far, Tencent's total investment in Reddit has reached $417 million. It holds 11.5% of Reddit's shares, and has become its second largest shareholder.
Tencent's investment triggered a strong reaction from Reddit users. They posted a large number of Winnie the Pooh pictures, to mock Xi Jinping, and posts about the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in order to express their concerns about possible speech control. These concerns are hardly groundless: after all, Tencent is an important part of China's Internet censorship mechanism, and there is a CCP branch within the company. Therefore, its investment in Reddit could in fact be a threat to the platform's freedom of speech.
Anti-communist communities are frequently banned
After the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022, the “ChongLangtv” subreddit attracted widespread attention for launching the “Great Translation Movement.” The movement aimed to translate “pro-Russian” speeches on the Chinese Internet into other languages, thus revealing China's domestic public opinion on the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to Ukraine and the international community. This project not only created resentment towards China overseas, but also attracted attention and criticism from within China. In the end, “ChongLangtv” was permanently banned.
In September 2022, after the United Nations released the “Xinjiang Human Rights Report” the “Free_XinJiang” forum appeared on Reddit for users to discuss China's human rights violations in Xinjiang. Although the forum quickly attracted nearly a thousand subscribers, it was permanently banned within less than 24 hours of its creation, raising questions about whether Reddit's decision was made under pressure from China.
The banning of multiple Chinese anti-communist communities on Reddit has further sparked discussions about China's long-arm jurisdiction. Although Reddit is a social media platform headquartered in the United States, the influence of Tencent as its major shareholder cannot be ignored. Recent research and expert opinion indicates that the Chinese government is trying to expand its control over public opinion globally through capital influence and technical means. In addition to Reddit and TikTok, Discord and Snapchat, social platforms where teenagers gather, also receive Chinese investment. Regardless, managers of social platforms and the international community must pay more attention to preventing the erosion and interference of public discourse space in order to maintain online freedom.
Reddit封禁“反共”版块 疑似中国长臂管辖所致
10月15日，知名社交媒体平台Reddit上的中文社群「real_China_irl」被永久封禁，该群组拥有超10万名成员，由一群因不满中国政府言论审查，且反对中国当权政府的异议者组成，成员大多是中国大陆的翻墙用户和海外华人。群组内的讨论常常通过讽刺与黑色幽默的方式触及中国的政治议题，曾为四通桥事件和白纸革命等民主抗议提供传播渠道。此次封禁事件，是继「ChongLangtv」、「Free_XinJiang」、「CLtv」、「QuanLang」及「Youmo」等中文社群版块被封禁后，中文自由派社区在Reddit上的又一次重挫。
Reddit官方最初给出的封禁理由为“无人管理”，被临时封禁。有网友相继向Reddit申请想成为该版块的管理者，封禁原因又改为违反社区规则，被永久封禁。而网友对此进行了多次申诉，但得到的结果是无法透露具体原因，且申诉内容也被官方删除。且在10月15日封禁当天，有该版块成员创立了一个名为r/RubaoTV的新板块，但在不到三小时内就被无理由封禁，直到一天多后Reddit官方才给出了这一新版块“被用于垃圾信息”的封禁理由。而这一新版块被封禁时，只有几条内容。因此有网友质疑是中国当局长臂管辖，对墙外社交平台进行言论干预和内容审查，这个猜测缘由是腾讯。
腾讯——Reddit的第二大股东
早在2016年，字节跳动曾尝试通过换股形式收购Reddit，但最终未能成功。然而，2019年2月，Reddit获得了3亿美元的D轮融资，其中腾讯提供了1.5亿美元。随后在2020年，腾讯再次参与了E轮融资，至此腾讯总计对Reddit的投资达4.17亿美元，持有Reddit 11.5%的股份，成为其第二大股东。
腾讯的入股曾引发Reddit用户的强烈反应，他们大量发布嘲讽习近平的小熊维尼图片和天安门事件的帖文，表达对可能出现的言论管控的担忧，这种担忧并非无端猜忌，毕竟腾讯是中国互联网审查机制的重要组成部分，且公司内设有党支部，因此其入股Reddit的行为被认为可能对该平台的言论自由构成威胁。
反共社群频遭封禁
2022年俄乌战争爆发后，Reddit上的「ChongLangtv」版块因发起“大翻译运动”而引发广泛关注。该运动旨在将中国互联网上的“挺俄”言论翻译成其他语言，向乌克兰及国际社会揭露中国国内对俄乌冲突的舆论导向。该活动不仅激起了海外对中国的反感，也因此被中国墙内关注并抨击。最终「ChongLangtv」被永久封禁。
2022年9月，联合国发布了《新疆人权报告》后，Reddit上出现了「Free_XinJiang」版块，供用户讨论中国在新疆的侵犯人权问题。尽管该版块迅速吸引了近千名订阅者，但在创建不到24小时内就遭到永久封禁，令人质疑Reddit的决策是否受到了来自中国方面的压力。
Reddit上多个中文反共社群的相继封禁，进一步引发了关于中国长臂管辖的讨论。尽管Reddit是一家总部位于美国的社交媒体平台，但腾讯作为其重要股东的影响力不容忽视。对于这些封禁事件，外界普遍认为中国政府通过资本影响和技术手段，试图在全球范围内扩展其舆论控制力。除Reddit与TikTok外，青少年聚集的社交平台Discord和Snapchat也有来自于中国的投资。无论如何，社交平台的管理者和国际社会都应更加重视防范公共话语空间的侵蚀与干预，以维护网络自由。