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I recall that somewhere in the early 2000s they did away with “the uptick rule”. And this made it easier to short stocks.
Can someone more savvy than me explain that?

I leave this to others to explain, such as Freepers with a degree or work experience in Finance.

The rule in effect on the NYSE I believe was a stock had to trade up a “tick” or price change before a short sale could be put through. In theory that would stop someone from driving the stock down. In action, it is easy to manipulate an up tick and then follow it with the short.

Today with stocks traded in decimals, not 1/8s and 1/4 points, the up tick is virtually meaningless. Also, in the old days, many trades went through the specialist on the floor. Not so much today. This event has some hidden messages. With so much money sloshing about together with few firms paying any dividends, the returns on stocks are being pushed toward capital gains. Fine, but when they get to the point where their PEs are in the hundreds or thousands, the prices are ridicules. A huge bubble, kind of like the tulip bulb fiasco long ago in Holland. On paper COB friday, GME was worth 13 Billion. A trifle on Wall Street in total but the stock is not worth 13 Billion. It is a retail stock, nothing more. When the prices break, those on margin will get wiped out. Extend that example over the entire market it is a disaster waiting and each day with grossly inflated prices, it gets more dangerous.