When a meme platform becomes about me, me, me

THIS month, Reddit’s WallStreetBets forum will collide with Wall Street yet again as the social media platform hurtles towards its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO).

In 2021, the popular r/wallstreetbets subreddit became the poster child for the stock market fever dream, as its millions of users drove “meme stocks” to all-time highs. Now, though, some of its users are threatening to kneecap the IPO, with the forum’s top comments featuring urges to bet against the offering.

This is ironic, given the platform they were using to voice their discontent. And as with anything populated by sleep-deprived anonymous users and rocket emojis, the sentiment might be disproportionate to actual real-life outcomes.