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A12 technology
Monday 1 February 2021
Fight The Man: What GameStop's surge says about online mobs

AP Technology Writers delivery and sharpening
It's a fable for our times: knives, and started buying
Small-time investors band shares in GameStop back
together to take down in November.
greedy Wall Street hedge "I went from a $9,000 posi-
funds using the stock of a tion up to about $30,000 as
troubled video-game store. of last night. Today I lost 10
But the revolt of online grand," he said Thursday. "I
stock-traders suggests didn't sell. I'm going to hold.
much more. The internet is It's been an emotional
shifting society's balance week, let's say that."
of power in unanticipated As with many crowd move-
ways. And the same tools ments, it was hard to trace
that empower the little guy where it all started, though
— allowing people to orga- there were at least a few
nize quickly and seemingly high-profile instigators.
out of nowhere, troll power- Among them was Roaring
ful institutions and unleash Kitty, a YouTube personal-
chaos — can also give rise ity from a Boston suburb
to extremist mobs waging who became a legendary
harassment campaigns or fixture on the Reddit forum,
the Jan. 6 riot at the Capi- expressing an early interest
tol. Pedestrians pass a GameStop store on 14th Street at Union Square, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2021, in the in buying GameStop shares
In the world of pseudony- Manhattan borough of New York. and inspiring a growing le-
mous internet message Associated Press gion of followers to pore
boards, pranks-gone-wild through its financials.
and logic turned upside meme of Bernie Sanders C. Li, a law professor and to plan hate crimes and at- The Reddit-based investors
down amid a global pan- in mittens can distract us tech attorney focusing on tacks," she said. "The inter- used the chat platform Dis-
demic, revolts come in all amid a presidential inau- privacy and technology net isn't really the villain or cord to fire each other up
shapes, sizes and aims. guration and a Reddit mes- platform governance. the hero." and the trading app Rob-
Last week they gave us the sage board can send Wall With GameStop, she add- Jason Wilkinson had dab- inhood to buy shares with
Great GameStop Stock Up- Street big shots running in ed in an interview Friday, bled in stocks but took a a few clicks on their smart-
rising. Who knows what this panic, perhaps some good the goal was to upset the deeper dive into the Red- phones. They soon found
week will bring. can come out of this, too. interests of a few large dit forum WallStreetBets af- a shared enemy in hedge
One thing for sure: we'll be Right? hedge funds. ter losing his job at a tech fund managers who tried
seeing more of it. More and "The internet can democ- "But in other places the company in the pandemic. to short the stock, encour-
more of us have learned to ratize access, upsetting goal can be more ne- The 30-year-old New York aging each other to keep
game the system, whether power dynamics between farious. Online spaces are City resident started trad- buying GameStop and
for a noble cause or, as the people and traditional being used to radicalize ing between other part- push it ever higher —"to the
they say, "for the lulz." If a institutions," tweeted Tiffany people toward extremism, time jobs doing motorcycle moon."q

U.N. chief calls for regulating social media companies

questioner asked. tives accused the com- last June.
Rather, he said, a "mecha- panies of censorship and The roadmap's aim is to
nism" should be created "in violating the First Amend- promote "a safer, more eq-
which there is a regulatory ment's right to free speech. uitable digital world."
framework with rules that Guterres said he is "par- It calls for action in eight
allow for that to be done in ticularly worried" about areas including achieving
line with law." the power of social media universal connectivity to
"I do not think that we can companies. the Internet by 2030, "pro-
live in a world where too He pointed to "the volume moting trust and security
much power is given to a of information that is being in the digital environment"
reduced number of com- gathered about each one and "building a more effec-
panies," Guterres stressed of us, the lack of control we tive architecture for digital
at a news conference. have about ... the data re- cooperation,"
Earlier this month, Twitter lated to ourselves, the fact "Digital technology issues
ended Trump's nearly 12- that that data can be used are too often low on politi-
Norwegian Borge Brende, left, President and Member of the year run and shuttered his not only for commercial cal agendas," it says.
Managing Board of the World Economic Forum (WEF) speaks account, severing an in- purposes to sell to advertis- Among the roadmap's pro-
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres via videolink during
the Davos Forum, in Cologny near Geneva, Switzerland, Mon- stant line of communica- ing companies ... but also visions is a call for strength-
day, Jan. 25, 2021. tion to his 89 million follow- to change our behavior, ening the Internet Gover-
Associated Press ers that was a hallmark of and the risks of that to be nance Forum, which bring
his presidency. Facebook used also from a political people from various groups
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Guterres said he believes and Instagram suspended point of view for the control in the public and private
United Nations chief called it shouldn't be a company Trump. of citizens in countries." sector together to discuss
Thursday for global rules to that has the power to de- Twitter said Trump's tweets Guterres said this "requires public policy issues related
regulate powerful social cide whether, for example, could incite violence fol- a serious discussion" and to the Internet, "in order to
media companies like Twit- then president Donald lowing the Jan. 6 insurrec- that is one of the objectives make it more responsive
ter and Facebook. Trump's Twitter account tion at the U.S. Capitol by of his "Roadmap for Digital and relevant to current
Secretary-General Antonio should be closed, as a his supporters. Conserva- Cooperation" launched digital issues."q