From investopedia: >There is some grey area here. For example, a professional short-seller may accumulate a short position and then publicize the reasons for shorting the stock. This seems perilously close to a short-seller's version of a pump-and-dump scheme, in which a speculator hypes (or bashes) an investment for personal gain.

>There is a distinction, however. The short-seller in this example reveals the personal financial stake at the time of the recommendation. And, the information conveyed by the short-seller reflects a genuine fact-based view of the outlook of the stock shorted rather than a falsehood intended to mislead.

It's not stock manipulation. They reported their short position in the data. They did exactly what shorts are supposed to do from a market health perspective. They are supposed to profit because if they didn't, there would be no incentive to investigate bullshit companies