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"Reddit controlled by American military-industrial complex? The troubling history of war hawk Jessica Ashooh, the policy director of the platform"
"At the heart of the controversy is an 'unusual' appointment of foreign policy expert Jessica Ashooh as the Director of Policy of Reddit in 2017.
The public skepticism surrounding the United States’ policy on censorship, surveillance, and foreign regime change interventions has existed for a long time. At a time when alternate news sources and social media platforms have surpassed their mainstream counterparts, Mint Press reported that the US military might be on a mission to exploit the popular social media platform Reddit for its gains.
At the heart of the controversy is an ‘unusual’ appointment of foreign policy expert Jessica Ashooh as the Director of Policy of Reddit in 2017. Ashooh hails from a prominent family in New Hampshire, with her uncle Richard serving as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration under the former US President Donald Trump. Unlike her Republican uncle, she has a strong leaning towards the Democratic party and has donated to anti-Trump groups.
The foreign policy hawk has shown support for the contentious Right Side PAC and the Lincoln Project but has occasionally showered praise on prominent Republicans such as George W Bush. She had even written her doctoral thesis on Bush’s foreign policy in the Middle East while she was a student at the Oxford University. In Washington, her political views lie in the centre of the neoliberal blob. But, unlike other appointees to the senior roles in Reddit, Jessica Ashooh did not have any relevant experience in the field of tech or marketing.
Interestingly, Jessica Ashooh has been a member of the Atlantic Council, which is the foreign policy arm of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Mint News reported that the Atlantic Council receives funding from the US military, US government, big tech firms, weapon manufacturers, and even the Middle Eastern nations. The Board of Directors of the think tank has high-profile Statesman such as Henry Kissinger, Colin Powell, Condolezza Rice, 7 former CIA directors, and senior military commanders.
Others occupying senior management roles in Reddit have worked with companies such as Snapchat, Yelp, and Expedia. As such, Ashooh’s appointment was a departure from normal practice in Reddit. While speaking about the development, journalist and researcher Tom Secker commented, “That someone whose entire career has been in international relations and foreign affairs is now the senior policy wonk at Reddit is simply bizarre. Given her ties to the CFR, Atlantic Council, and the like, it’s downright suspicious.”
Ashooh’s appointment as the Director of Policy of Reddit happened in 2017 when the Senate Select Intelligence Committee had demanded additional control over the social media site for ‘spreading disinformation.’ It has been 4 years since Jessica Ashooh took over the role. She is in charge of overseeing government relations, the public policy of Reddit, besides advertising and content management. Despite the appointment of such a high-profile foreign policy hawk, Mint Press found negligible coverage in the press between late 2016 and early 2017. All of this added to the long existent suspicion of a close-knitted nexus between Silicon Valley and the US deep state apparatus."
more:
https://www.opindia.com/2021/06/jessica-ashooh-reddit-director-of-policy-atlantic-council-nato-middle-east-syria/