Robinhood, the popular app used to trade on the stock market, has restricted the ability for people to trade GameStop and other other stocks.
Robinhood placed restrictions on GameStop, AMC, BlackBerry, Bed Bath & Beyond, Express, Nokia and others on Thursday. All of those stocks have been at the center of a days-long Reddit-backed surge in stock price as millions of users joined together to push the prices higher as hedge funds shorted them.
The frenzy left GameStop in particular hitting $347.51 on Wednesday.
In a blog post on Thursday, Robinhood said it was restricting transactions on the stocks “in light of recent volatility.” Business Insider notes that the app is telling users they are able to close out positions on the stocks but cannot purchase new shares.
Other stockbrokers, like TD Ameritrade also has put certain restrictions on the stocks, according to the New York Times.
Seemingly in response to the removal, hundreds of people have flocked to Google’s Play Store and have left Robinhood 1–star reviews slamming the decision.
“They put limitations on what stocks you can buy and sell. It’s my money. I will be moving to a different platform after this stunt,” one person wrote on Thursday.
“Cut off trading for amc and gme.. absolute manipulation,” another person wrote.
Meanwhile, an old Robinhood tweet declaring “Let the people trade,” is catching heat online.
