5% stake is not relevant if you looked at other shareholders of Reddit. It is a xenophobic conspiracy theory if we looked at the largest shareholders of Reddit (https://web.archive.org/web/20230108005443/https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/who-owns-reddit-a-breakdown-of-the-type-and-nationality-of-shareholders/):

• Conde Nast (AP): 100% * 0.72 = 72%
• American VCs: (5% + 1/3 * 5%) * 0.8 + (1/2 * 11.1% + 7/18 * 11.1%) * 0.9 + 5% * 1.0 = 19.21%
• American individuals: (2/3 * 5%) * 0.8 + (1/18 * 11.1%) * 0.91 = 3.23%
• Dubai VC: (1/18 * 11.1%) * 0.9 = 0.56%
• Tencent: 5% * 1.0 = 5%

Breakdown of Series A VC, Condé Nast: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/03/business/media/reddit-thrives-after-advance-publications-let-it-sink-or-swim.html

Breakdown of Series B VCs being all Americans: https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/reddit-series-b--662ba273

Breakdown of Series C VCs being 8 Americans and 1 Dubai VC: https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/reddit-series-c--168f04d0

Breakdown of Series D VCs with 3 American VCs and China’s Tencent: https://www.crunchbase.com/funding_round/reddit-series-d--c9282e50

Condé Nast and one American VC hold more shares than Tencent, plus Reddit is astroturfed by US military, as seen during 2015. https://old.reddit.com/r/Blackout2015/comments/4ylml3/reddit_has_removed_their_blog_post_identifying/ Reddit, if anything, is a literal US military arm to spread propaganda in media, and not controlled by Chinese government.

The root of “Tencent CCP own Reddit” conspiracy literally lies in r/conspiracy to spread xenophobic sentiments against China. Anyone perpetuating this nonsense will face a ban after this.