Very strange, I would have expected the opposite reaction. Every time people lose money on Robinhood they blame them for not screening clients appropriately, letting them invest more than their risk tolerance, etc. This is definitely abnormal, speculative conditions (i.e. anyone who is a normal buy and hold, value, income, etc investor does not need to be entering a position on those stocks right now).
Personally, I think they should have left trading open in cash accounts, but it is completely reasonable to block purchases of high risk shares especially on margin. Same as many brokerages limit OTCs, penny stocks, F shares, etc.
If someone really wants to buy more, it only takes a few minutes to open an account with another online firm. If they hadn't allowed sales and potentially prevented someone from stopping a loss that would be a much bigger deal, but for some reason AOC specifically called this out as suspicious.
Personally, I think they should have left trading open in cash accounts, but it is completely reasonable to block purchases of high risk shares especially on margin. Same as many brokerages limit OTCs, penny stocks, F shares, etc.
If someone really wants to buy more, it only takes a few minutes to open an account with another online firm. If they hadn't allowed sales and potentially prevented someone from stopping a loss that would be a much bigger deal, but for some reason AOC specifically called this out as suspicious.