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Why Gamestop though?  Why was it being (allegedly?) shorted?  Random/strictly a numbers thing or something specific about the company itself (not numbers-related)?

Nothing alleged about it. It was being shorted. Excessively. It was being shorted more than any stock on the entire market by an order of magnitude. Nothing else was close. It was shorted at 140%. Basically means they borrowed every single share of GameStop stock in existence- 1.4 times. Hard to even wrap your head around that.

They were trying to drive it into the dirt so they could buy the shares back for pennies on the dollar- return the shares they borrowed and pocket huge sums of money. Reddit forum caught onto what they were doing and banded together to squeeze them. Sounding like other hedge funds piggybacked off the redditors and made those losses for the shorts even worse.

But why Gamestop? 

Because it was a failing company that was still publicly traded

refusing to let people on their apps/platform buy it while still allowing and basically openly encouraging people to sell it is the definition of market manipulation.

The stock wasn't overvalued or undervalued- it just was what it was- and it wasn't just one Wall Street hedge fund- it was a cabal of them- and they didn't just short the company- they dangerously, excessively massively shorted the company and tried to run the share price into the dirt just to make a quick buck on their highly risky speculative bet. They lost.

all stocks are overvalued or undervalued so Im not sure how you can say this

the act of shorting is not in itself manipulation any more then buying a stock is

and again a broker limiting activity on a highly volatile stock is very common

so far Ive not seen anything I would consider illegal like fraudulent company info etc

Because it was a failing company that was still publicly traded

Not entirely true. It is NOT as simple or cut and dry as you are trying to make it sound. GameStop sales grew in 2020 and their losses in 2020 improved dramatically from 2019- more than halved- they had just brought on the founder of online pet retailer Chewy onto their board to help them restructure- they had just restructured debt and raised capital. This wasn't a business that wasn't just going to disappear overnight. It has a viable business and reason to exist. 

The shorts were literally just trying to f###k with it and drive it into the dirt to make money because they felt like it was an easy target. And they weren't just shorting it. They were EXCESSIVELY and dangerously shorting it. And that's why they just got their asses handed to them. Gotta love it.

Not entirely true. It is NOT as simple or cut and dry as you are trying to make it sound. GameStop sales grew in 2020 and their losses in 2020 improved dramatically from 2019- more than halved- they had just brought on the founder of online pet retailer Chewy onto their board to help them restructure- they had just restructured debt and raised capital. This wasn't a business that wasn't just going to disappear overnight. It has a viable business and reason to exist.

The shorts were literally just trying to f###k with it and drive it into the dirt to make money because they felt like it was an easy target. And they weren't just shorting it. They were EXCESSIVELY and dangerously shorting it. And that's why they just got their asses handed to them. Gotta love it.

I mean that's why they shorted Gamestop - it wasn't like they hated videogames or something.

I mean that's why they shorted Gamestop - it wasn't like they hated videogames or something.

GameStop wasn't just going to go zero overnight. It was a struggling company going through restructuring- lots of companies struggle and go through restructuring and don't get shorted at 140%.

This wasn't some typical short bet like the shorts on Tesla where maybe 20-30% was shorted- which was also a struggling company going through restructuring by the way- they were shorting this thing at 140% trying to drive it out of existence. It was dangerous, risky, and excessive. They got caught with their pants down and took it up the ass because of it.

GameStop wasn't just going to go zero overnight. It was a struggling company going through restructuring- lots of companies struggle and go through restructuring and don't get shorted at 140%.

This wasn't some typical short bet like the shorts on Tesla where maybe 20-30% was shorted- which was also a struggling company going through restructuring by the way- they were shorting this thing at 140% trying to drive it out of existence. It was dangerous, risky, and excessive. They got caught with their pants down and took it up the ass because of it.

Gamestop began the year at a $17 share price and right now is at $235 per share so I dont think their operators are crying in their beer