Reddit’s Populist Stock Movement Was 15 Years in the Making
The founders wanted to give people the tools to disrupt the status quo. WallStreetBets is a culmination of that vision.
The Redditor revolt that made stock markets go haywire in recent weeks owes its origins, in part, to a humpback whale named Mister Splashy Pants. In 2007, Greenpeace asked the public to decide the name of a whale in the South Pacific Ocean for a campaign raising awareness of hunting by Japanese fisheries. A group of pranksters organized on the still-nascent message board Reddit to hijack Greenpeace’s online poll and push their chosen name. The organization and the netizens grappled for weeks until Greenpeace finally relented, and Mister Splashy Pants was crowned.
Two years later, Reddit Inc. co-founder Alexis Ohanian recounted the gag in a TED Talk. “In the last four years, we’ve seen all kinds of memes, all kinds of trends get born right on our front page,” he said. “This is how the internet works. This is the great big secret. The internet provides a level playing field.”