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Reddit's Alexis Ohanian Shoots Down Rumors He Consulted For Intellig

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  • Reddit's Alexis Ohanian Shoots Down Rumors He Consulted For Intellig

    REDDIT'S ALEXIS OHANIAN SHOOTS DOWN RUMORS HE CONSULTED FOR INTELLIGENCE FIRM

    The Daily Dot
    August 26, 2013 Monday 6:36 PM EST

    Controversy erupted today on Reddit[1] after an email exchange[2]
    between the company's co-founder, Alexis Ohanian and the intelligence
    contractor Stratfor[3] emerged on WikiLeaks[4].

    A 2011 Anonymous hack[5] of Stratfor, a contractor for the Department
    of Homeland Security and the Defense Intelligence Agency, ended with
    millions of the company's internal emails released by WikiLeaks as the
    "Global Intelligence Files."

    Redditors searching through that data dump discovered an email exchange
    between Ohanian and Stratfor employees, dating from January 2011. It
    was apparently initiated by Ohanian, who used the subject line:
    'reddit cofounder consulting for Stratfor to bring in the social
    media dollars.'

    'I have never worked for Stratfor,' he told the Daily Dot, though
    the subject line of his email implies he did make an effort to do so.

    In a 2011 email to Stratfor's vice president of communications, he
    wrote, 'It was so fortuitous to meet you and your husband!...I can
    let you know when I'll be free to come by the office.'

    Dozens of Reddit threads popped up Monday accusing Ohanian of being
    in bed with a company that's extremely unpopular with Redditors. The
    rumors grew so loud that Ohanian eventually issued a public denial. He
    tweeted screenshots of messages he'd exchanged with Stratfor, including
    one revealing his proposal, a relatively benign-sounding offer[6]
    to audit Stratfor's social media presence for $25,000.

    Ohanian also tweeted screen shots of his final exchange[7] with the
    intelligence company. The vice president of communications thanked
    him for his proposal and told them they'd be in touch. There is no
    evidence of any further correspondence.

    Apparently, the conversation began after Ohanian met the vice president
    at Stratfor's Austin, Texas, office during South by Southwest. 'I have
    never worked for Stratfor...they asked me for a quote to consult, so I
    gave it to them, but it went nowhere. We hadn't talked since.' Ohanian
    told the Daily Dot.

    According to Ohanian, the closest he has ever come to working for an
    intelligence contractor is being on a paid speaking panel in 2007.

    The timing of the leak is unfortunate for Ohanian. The idea of
    collaborations between Internet companies and the U.S. government
    has been hotly debated since former U.S. National Security Agency[8]
    contractor Edward Snowden[9] disclosed the agency's massive Internet
    surveillance operations this summer.

    With one particular program, codenamed PRISM[10], the NSA obtains user
    information from Google, Facebook, Microsoft and other Silicon Valley
    tech companies. The program, along with others, collects users emails,
    messages, chats, photos and video.

    In the days before PRISM was disclosed, it is doubtful that the world
    would have made much of a collaboration between a Reddit cofounder
    and an intelligence contractor. Indeed, Ohanian was likely unaware
    of any major link between these intelligence firms and large-scale
    government surveillance.

    'I'd been a big fan because no one else reported on Caucasus as well
    and I was living in Armenia at the time,' Ohanian told the Daily Dot.

    There is no indication Ohanian would have even considered a making
    his proposal in light of Snowden's leaks, and Reddit's General
    Manager, Erik Martin, has revealed that Reddit was never asked to
    participate[11] in the PRISM program.

    "When the WikiLeaks revelation happened years later, I did not renew
    my subscription [to Stratfor]," Ohanian added.




    From: A. Papazian
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