pull stocks from its platform did not resonate well with users. Robinhood claimed the decision was made to protect its customers and was necessary for risk management reasons. Robinhood's brand was built on the promise that it was "on a mission to democratize finance for all." It takes companies a long time to build a brand, but they can lose it almost instantaneously. The company is known for its appeal to young and novice investors due to the ability to trade stocks without any commission charge. However, Robinhood became the focus of the controversy after it decided to freeze trades for GameStop stock on Jan. 28. Shares of the video game retailer spiked after traders on Reddit began frantically buying the company's stock. A Robinhood user filed a class-action lawsuit accusing the popular trading app of purposefully and knowingly to "manipulate the market for the benefit of people and financial institutions who were not Robinhood customers." The lawsuit also accused Robinhood of negligence and breached its fiduciaries' duties of keeping its clients interested as a top priority. Another user filed a lawsuit claiming the decision to halt trades of Blackberry, Nokia, and AMC theaters "to protect institutional investment at the detriment of retail customers." References External links IR magazine IR Web Report IR GO https://fortune.com/2021/02/19/robinhood-brand-damage-gamestop-hedge-funds-wallstreetbets-reddit-stocks-gme-amc/ Communications management Stock market Corporate finance Investment