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28 Jan, 2021 17:08

From hero to zero: Robinhood trading app flooded with THOUSANDS of one-star reviews after delisting GameStop stock

From hero to zero: Robinhood trading app flooded with THOUSANDS of one-star reviews after delisting GameStop stock

The Robinhood trading app has received more than 100,000 one-star reviews on Google Play in the hours after delisting GameStop, AMC, Nokia and Blackberry stock that had earlier prompted its record downloads.

Robinhood's almost perfect rating crumbled to just a single star on Thursday as betrayed users hurried to exact their revenge on the company that suddenly found itself labeled "the biggest fraud of them all."

The move was costly for the app – named after a fictional medieval robber, who took from the rich and gave to the poor – as it seemed to be on top of its game just a few hours earlier.

Esports and gaming consultant Rod Breslau noted that Robinhood was hit with more than 100,00 one-star votes in just the hour after it delisted the stocks.

"Robinhood went from the app of the people to the enemy of the people in the blink of an eye," one Twitter user wrote.

On Thursday, Robinhood had become the most-download free app in the US. The Appfigures analytics platform told 9to5Mac that it predicted that the GameStop frenzy would bring almost 700,000 new users to Robinhood. Now, however, that prediction looks unlikely to come true.

Also on rt.com Trading app Robinhood SHUTS DOWN GameStop stock, after Reddit traders embarrass Wall Street

Robinhood's rise came as the Reddit forum WallStreetBets wreaked havoc on the stock market, with amateur traders banding together to drive up share prices in companies like GameStop, AMC, Nokia and Blackberry, which hedge funds were attempting to short sell. The scheme has inflicted billions of dollars in losses on big market players.

Even more attention was drawn to the frenzy by the world's richest man, Space X and Tesla founder Elon Musk, who tweeted a link to the WallStreetBets subreddit on Wednesday. He also grilled Discord for shutting down its 'WallStreetBets' channel, saying that the messaging app "has gone corpo."

Also on rt.com Elon Musk accuses Discord of ‘going corpo’ after it shut down WallStreetBets amid assault on GameStop short sellers

The same apparently happened to Robinhood as it eventually decided to at least attempt to end the craze and shut GameStop, AMC, Nokia and Blackberry stock down for its users. The company said that the harsh move was necessary due to "significant market volatility."

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