The GameStop stock vanity seems to have been largely the product of Reddit users and trading apps like Robinhood, but some of its contributors may not have been human. According to Reuters, cybersecurity firm PiiQ Media has determined that people use social media bots to promote GameStop, Dogecoin and other “meme” investments. Posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube have jumped on trading terms like GME (GameStop’s stock symbol) and ‘hold the line’, starting around the opening of trading and moving towards the end.
There are tens of thousands of such accounts, PiiQ said.
It is not certain who was behind the collisions, or how effective it was. Reddit chief Steve Huffman told a congressional hearing that he does not think bots play a ‘significant role’ in stock buying, although his ability to detect bots outside Reddit is limited.
The new findings may be of concern. Although the Reddit activity was apparently aimed at punishing short sellers and otherwise driving a wave of hype (to the great concern of some investors), the clashes raised the possibility that malicious actors were either boasting about the GameStop campaign or the market in in the future. Social sites may need to step up their efforts to remove bots from now on.