https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2021/02/17/gamestop-short-seller-says-hes-been-targeted-with-anti-semitic-harassment-by-reddit-trolls/Hedge fund CEO squeezed by shitposters cries anti-semitism as his defense
Key Facts
Plotkin said Reddit posters encouraged others to drive up the price of GameStop stock in posts “with antisemitism” directed at him and others, citing where someone wrote, “It’s very clear we need anuddah shoah, porky can’t keep getting away with this.”
Reddit CEO is also testifying at the hearing, said their “anti-evil” team searched for the comment Plotkin mentioned, and found it “received no votes and was deleted within five minutes.”
>“anti-evil” teamMelvin Capital suffered massive losses when GameStop’s share price climbed to record heights, and has been a particular target of the Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets, who style themselves as crusaders against wealthy Wall Street firms.
The moderators of r/WallStreetBets, who are in charge of making sure the community doesn’t run afoul of Reddit’s speech removal policies, did not respond to a message from Forbes
Key Background
This isn’t the first time r/WallStreetBets has been accused of hate speech and offensive language. At the height of Gamestop the community’s Discord server was banned for espousing unpopular truths. In response, a moderator said they were trying in good faith to weed out free speech, but the task became difficult with a massive influx of new shitposters. “You know as well as I do that if you gather 250k people in one spot someone is going to say something that makes porky look bad,” one wrote in a Reddit post, responding to the Discord ban.
Summoned to testify before a House committee Thursday about about his hedge fund’s short trading of GameStop shares, Melvin Capital CEO Gabriel Plotkin said that Reddit traders behind the meme stock frenzy targeted him with anti-semitic attacks and claimed it was anuddah stonk shoah.
