Reddit users are fearing censorship when Chinese company Tencent invests $150 million into the platform.
TIME reports that Reddit users are rallying against censorship after news of Chinese company Tencent investing $150 million into the site.
Reddit, which plans to raise $300 million to facilitate and support the company’s operations, will receive half of it from Tencent.
The social news site has 330 million active users and markets itself as the “Front Page of the Internet.”
Redditors have since taken to the site to express their concern, posting threads and memes criticizing the deal with China.
One post that reportedly shared the infamous image of a man stopping a tank in Tiananmen Square wa up-voted over 200,000 times.
“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 ‘Tank Man’ at Tienanmen [sic] Square before our new glorious overlords decide we cannot post it anymore,” wrote user FreeSpeechWarrior.
“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, referring to China’s ban on the A. A. Milne character after people claimed the character held a physical resemblance to Xi Jinping.
However, some said Tencent’s investment is not a controlling stake in the company, which is valued at t $2.7 billion.
“A lot of people seem to think it’s a majority buy out for some reason,” wrote user Lunariel.
