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Summary
- Elon Musk had earlier tweeted on GameStop’s stock wild rally, which is being attributed to the coalition of day traders on Reddit called WallStreetBets.
- Discord announced on Wednesday that it came to the decision of banning WallStreetBets for violating its community guidelines.
- Moderators of the Reddit forum have reportedly described their ban on Discord as “unethical”.
Tesla Inc founder Elon Musk was shared a piece of his mind after US messaging platform Discord took down Reddit forum ‘WallStreetBets’ on Wednesday, January 27, for violating its guidelines. The billionaire put out a tweet saying that the communications company has gone “corpo”.
WallStreetBets, a coalition of day traders who interact on the community platform Reddit, gained massive fame over the past week for boosting stocks targeted by short-sellers. The group has been widely credited for propelling video retailer GameStop’s ongoing stock rally.
As GameStop’s insane upswing and WallStreetBets’ chatroom war on short-sellers became a trending chatter on Twitter, Elon Musk had joined in earlier with a subtle one-word tweet. His post was soon followed by yet another surge in GameStop’s stock price on Tuesday.
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Along with its bullish commentary, WallStreetBets was also noted for indulging in hateful speech and trolling. Short-stock commentor and Citron Research editor Andrew Left released a video on Wednesday noting some of the threats he received for his bearish take on GameStop stocks.
Why Discord Banned WallStreetBets?
A spokesperson for Discord announced on Wednesday that after much monitoring and multiple warnings, the messaging platform came to the decision of banning WallStreetBets for violating its community guidelines.
Discord has clarified that its decision was not triggered by WallStreetBets' promotion of stocks on the platform, but for continuing to indulge in “hateful and discriminatory content” despite repeated warnings.
The digital platform’s guidelines strictly prohibit hate speech, misinformation and glorification of violence.
WallStreetBets’ Response To The Ban
Moderators of the Reddit forum have reportedly described their ban on Discord as “unethical”, slamming the platform for “destroying our community”. WallStreetBets is said to have gone private on Reddit for a brief time.
Over the past week or so, the Reddit forum’s posts on stocks such as GameStop, BlackBerry (TSX:BB), AMC Entertainment (NYSE:AMC), etc. was followed by a rapid surge in their value. However, some of these recorded a dip in their prices in the after-hours session on Wednesday following Discord’s ban.
