The dizzying rollercoaster of GameStop’s stock over the past few days has cost hedge funds to lose billions of dollars. The sudden surge – from $20 per share just weeks ago to $492 per share on Thursday – was artificially generated by a social media movement that started on Reddit.

The pumping of the stock was described by analysts as the masses rebelling against the one percent that is hoarding all of the world’s wealth. The movement was started by a subreddit group called WallStreetBets, which has more than 4.7 million members.

The group urged people on social media to buy and hold GameStop shares to punish short-sellers – a practice that some have called to be unethical and a way for the elite to gain more money from the public.

 “We constantly see the 1 percent make trillions a year, even though the pandemic… versus the millions of Americans who had to file for unemployment,” a member of the group said in a post online.

During the height of the pandemic, hedge funds gained billions of dollars by betting on the drop in stocks as companies struggled with the movement restrictions and lockdowns.

“Gotta admit it’s really something to see Wall Streeters with a long history of treating our economy as a casino complain about a message board of posters also treating the market as a casino,” US Congress member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said in a post online.

“Notice how so many complain when the rules they have been manipulating are used against them?” another user replied to Ocasio-Cortez’s post.

GameStop’s share price ended Thursday down 44% as some people who were holding the stock cashed out. However, the stock skyrocketed once again during after-hours trading after Tesla CEO Elon Musk urged investors to continue punishing hedge funds for short selling.

“u can’t sell houses u don’t own u can’t sell cars u don’t own but u *can* sell stock u don’t own!? this is bs – shorting is a scam legal only for vestigial reasons,” Elon Musk said in one of his posts.