Founder of WallStreetBets (WSB) Jaime Rogozinski filed a lawsuit against Reddit last week, claiming the platform wrongfully removed him as a moderator in 2020 and infringed on his right to trademark the community’s name.
Founded in 2012, WSB fostered a reputation on Reddit as the go-to place for people to witness bold stock trades. Community members shared images of significant trading losses and gains with a mutually stoic sense of pride. Financial literacy wasn’t at the forefront of WSB’s day-to-day content, but rather a “YOLO” or “you only live once” mentality to trading stocks.
The subreddit ballooned in popularity amid COVID lockdowns as people spent more time at home, and—buoyed financially by pandemic relief programs—delved into online stock trading, often using platforms with zero commission fees like Robinhood. It was the epicenter of the so-called meme stock frenzy, which saw GameStop and AMC soar amid a historic short squeeze.
The subreddit hasn’t always been kind to posts about cryptocurrencies, limiting crypto discussions to a single thread, but its managers launched a cyrpto-specific subreddit in the fall of 2021. Reddit has also catered to the WSB community by releasing custom avatars, such as one with “diamond hands,” a tie emblazoned with a rocket, and sporting the logo’s yellow hair.
But long before droves of WSB onlookers piled into meme stocks and established figures like Keith Gill as icons in a battle to pin Wall Street on the losing side of trades, Rogozinski was removed as a moderator of the community by Reddit. The move constituted a “breach of contract [that] was intentional and willful,” according to Rogozinski’s filed complaint.
Reddit’s justification for ousting Rogozinski as a moderator centered on claims that the founder violated company policy
