"Robinhood is lying" is written on one of the signs that the young male protesters are holding up outside the financial app Robinhood's headquarters in Silicon Valley.
Robinhood, with zero fees and gamification of stock trading as success factors, is considered during the pandemic to have popularized stock speculation here in the United States.
When Robinhood restricted the possibility of buying Gamestop shares when the price rushed the most after talking up in a forum on Reddit, so that some hedge funds that have invested in declines bled, the dissatisfaction among the small speculators boiled.
Now it seemed that the elite fought back and denied ordinary people the right to continue winning at the stock market casino.
Robinhood and big business in the same boat.
Silicon Valley in collusion with Wall Street.
A narrative too good to be left untapped by Washington politicians.
"Left Democrats and Trump loyalists suddenly agree"
Suddenly, left-wing Democrats like Alexandra Octavio Cortez and Trump-loyal Republicans like Ted Cruz agreed: Robinhood's actions are a scandal and must be investigated.
The people have the right to win over the elite on the stock market!
It is reminiscent of another issue that also unites the otherwise bitter political opponents in Washington: social media has too much power over free speech.
They should be regulated more, it is agreed.
But how, you have a completely different view of it.
The legislation that exempts digital platforms such as Facebook and Twitter from legal responsibility for what people post, "Section 230", is being questioned from both the left and the right.
Democrats believe that social media should be obliged to clean up more among hatred and threats.
The attack on the Capitol, which was both incited and organized online, is taken as income for it.
Republicans, on the other hand, are outraged that current legislation gives tech giants the freedom to choose which posts to remove and which users to turn off.
They are worried that it is mainly conservative voices that are affected and talk about a "cancel culture" that is spreading in the major social media.
"Risk-free for Facebook and Twitter to shut down Trump"
When Facebook and Twitter shut down Trump for his posts in connection with the Capitol attack, it was risk-free for them.
Democrats had already won power, both in the White House and in the Senate.
A shutdown that can appease Biden.
The question is how much it can cost them in user flight to new platforms that have less or no moderation of content.
The giants of Silicon Valley were already accused of monopolistic forms and "surveillance capitalism" out of shame.
When Robinhood also seems to protect the rich instead of giving power to the people, it becomes another "proof" that Silicon Valley is Goliath that it is time for David to crush.
The hatred of Silicon Valley, that "Big Tech has too much power" is something more and more people can at least agree on in this otherwise so politically divided country.