Posted on 01/28/2021 8:27:12 PM PST by SeekAndFind
After Menlo Park, California Based Broker-Dealer Robinhood restricted trading and cost many of their retail investors any gains they might have made as they tried to save GameStop from a prospective short, the investors were furious that the company stopped their free market trading.
The investors have now filed multiple lawsuits against Robinhood, as we reported, claiming Robinhood was trying to manipulate the market and protect the hedge funds.
But they tried to strike back at Robinhood in another way, with giving them a slew of one star reviews in the Google Play Store. More than 100,000 such reviews flooded in an hour, driving its average ratings down to 1.1 stars out of 5. On Apple it’s still at 4.8. It had been one of the most popular apps on Apple because of everything going on with GameStop, until Robinhood restricted trading.
That reduced rating can drive the app down and cost them big time.
But then, Big Tech struck, and Google swept in, removing all the 100,000 negative reviews that had come in for the app. That brought their rating back up into the 4 range where it had been before all the furor hit.
So basically the effort to register the investor’s displeasure was wiped out.
Now normally such things have a spam response to companies in the news and Google relied on that in trying to justify their action. Google says “combines human intelligence with machine learning to detect and enforce policy violations in ratings and reviews. That it specifically took action on reviews that it felt violated those spamming policies. But in this case, these apparently were unhappy customers, when you wipe them out, you’re actually wiping out legitimate (albeit unhappy) reviews. It’s not the same thing as registering a spam negative because you’re disturbed about something else, in this case it is their service they were upset with.
Sure is nice to have Big Tech come in and protect you from honest reviews.
Meanwhile, Robinhood tried to smooth things over, announcing that they would allow limited buying tomorrow on the securities in questions. But that they would monitor the situation and might make adjustments as needed. They claimed the decision to restrict trade was “a risk-management decision, and was not made on the direction of the market makers we route to.”
So we’ll have to see what happens tomorrow. But so far this has all been a fascinating saga in trying to fight the elite and promises more volatility tomorrow.
Cancel RobinHood, cancel the evil Google.
Cancel the internet.
No, the distributed ‘net of yore was ok.
The concentrated, centralized ‘net of now is a pox.
Reports are coming in that Robinhood, the stock broker app, is forcibly selling shares of GameStop on behalf of some of its users. The transactions cannot be canceled and it is being positioned as mitigating “unreasonable risk” on behalf of the company as well as the investor.
Billionaire hedge funds have been taking a huge hit after a Reddit group started buying up GameStop shares in an effort to counter a massive amount of short positions. This prompted a “short squeeze” that sent the stock skyrocketing. As the dominos fell, GameStop reached a high of over $400 dollars per share, more than 10,000% higher than its low point earlier this year.
Now, it appears Robinhood and other brokers are cutting the losses of the billionaires by limiting the gains of small investors.
PING!
As “a FReeper” here commonly sayz: SPJNK...
Not necessarily promoting same. Just sayin’.
Now Google can also be listed as a defendant in the lawsuits. Since they are now a party to the crime.
yeah
RE: As “a FReeper” here commonly sayz: SPJNK...
I’m not good at abbreviations. Can you tell us what it means?
I have no sympathy for anyone foolish enough to use Robinhood. While they offer “free” trades, their execution prices are horrible and they have no customer service at all. The only way to contact them is through email or text chat, there is no way to speak with a live person at all, no 800 number, nothing!
Some People Just Need Kindness
It took me quite a while, but I think I finally got it.
YMMV...
RE: Some People Just Need Kindness
Thanks. You learn something new everyday :)
And you think this is about content moderation.
I would believe 100K legitimate bad reviews when the app restricted your ability to buy or sell while protecting hedge funds.
hear, hear
They are the ones canceling our internet.
They talk big on globalism but cannot stand competition.
Basically it has become an AOL monopoly again.... the monster Jim Robinson struck down is rearing its ugly head.
It might be good for freerepublic.
Post 9 Karma
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