REDDIT FORUM THAT FREAKED OUT WALL STREET GOES DARK BRIEFLY

The Reddit message board that's breaking the internet by sending Wall Street into a frenzy was briefly taken private by its moderators on Wednesday (Thursday, January 28, 2021, in Manila), adding further confusion to a wild day.

"We are experiencing technical difficulties based on unprecedented scale as a result of the newfound interest," said a message on the WallStreetBets subreddit, adding that enforcement of the forum's rules and Reddit's content policy became increasingly difficult.

"WSB will be back," the moderators added, Rishi Iyengar reported for CNN Business early on January 28, 2021.

The subreddit exploded onto the investment scene earlier this week when aggressive touting of GameStop's stock by several of its members sent the video game retailer's shares soaring more than 400% this week.

The actions appear to have helped fuel a so-called short squeeze in GameStop (GME) stock, where investors who had used options to bet against the stock needed to cover those bets by buying shares.

WallStreetBets has since turned its attention to other stocks, with movie theater chain AMC (AMC) spiking more than 300% on Wednesday.

In a post soon after making WallStreetBets public again Wednesday evening, the moderators outlined their struggle to manage the group's surging popularity.

"We have grown to the kind of size we only dreamed of in the time it takes to get a bad night’s sleep," they said.

"We've got so many comments and submissions that we can't possibly even read them all, let alone act on them as moderators." The moderators also said several Twitter accounts were trying to impersonate them.

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