GameStop mania stirs new ire for social-media shield Trump hates

The GameStop drama was the latest in a series of episodes in which social media users were alleged to have incited risky and dangerous activity, including planning the Jan 6 US Capitol insurrection and a plot to kidnap Whitmer. — Bloomberg

Market turbulence fuelled by a horde of retail investors targeting stocks like GameStop Corp has some fingers pointing at an unexpected culprit: the social-media liability protections vilified by former President Donald Trump.

The investors who sent shares of GameStop and several other companies to previously unfathomable heights relied on a Reddit-based forum as a central gathering point to discuss trading strategies, egg each other on and move in unison to squeeze hedge funds that had shorted stocks. Regulators are examining whether any of their activity was illegal.