NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Comedian Jon Stewart is finally on Twitter.
The former "Daily Show" host joined the platform Thursday under the handle @jon_actual, which boasts a blue "verified" checkmark and a profile picture featuring a dog in the snow.
In his first tweet, the 58-year-old came to the defense of Redditors at the center of the GameStop drama that's been rocking Wall Street.
"This is bull----. The Redditors aren't cheating, they're joining a party Wall Street insiders have been enjoying for years. Don't shut them down...maybe sue them for copyright infringement instead!! We've learned nothing from 2008. Love StewBeef," Stewart wrote in his first official tweet sent at 4:15 p.m.
His tweet came after the online trading platform, Robinhood, restricted trading in GameStop and other stocks that suddenly soared, saying investors would only be able to sell their positions and not open new ones in some cases.
Schwab and TD Ameritrade also took action in response to the recent trading activity, adjusting margin requirements on select stocks to "ensure clients had sufficient assets to pay for stock purchases. Both firms also restricted certain advanced options strategies.
In a press release Schwab said, "Neither Charles Schwab & Co. nor TD Ameritrade halted buying or selling any stocks this week. Neither firm restricted buying or selling basic options."
The move by Robinhood came after the video game retailer's stock surged from around $17 a share earlier this month to $345 a share this week after a group of investors banded together on Reddit to take on the big guys on Wall Street, who had bet the stock would fall.
Fellow comedian and “The Late Show” host Stephen Colbert was quick to welcome Stewart to the platform tweeting, "Well, one thing changed since 2008- a friend of mine joined Twitter."
In his second tweet, issued hours later, Stewart thanked everyone for their warm welcome and said, "I promise to only use this app in a sporadic and ineffective manner."
The Verge reported Stewart gained more than 120,000 followers in the five hours after sending his first tweet.
By Friday morning, his follower count had skyrocketed to more than 673,000.
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