It's amazing that nearly everyone in the comments take this as factual evidence, the entire chat could be falsified with fake accounts and 1 asshole with too much time on their hands + a vendetta against the framed individuals. And even if it is true, who cares? The volume that they could control is pretty pathetic, I'm more worried about tether, ASICs, governments, and a variety of other things than I am a couple of PnD participants.
Just to clarify, I don't support PnD's, but the title "MAJOR Crypto Influencers Caught Planning Massive Pump And Dump Schemes" and the first sentence "The post that you are about to read may potentially shake up the entire cryptosphere." Are just sensationalized and clickbaity. There is literally no chance this article could "shake up the cryptosphere"
Small cap coins are a huge risk due to the ease of market manipulation, this is well known. Those who are not educated shouldn't put $ on the table, I wouldn't go balls deep into the stock market without learning the risks. Everyone wants get rich quick. Greed is an easy thing to manipulate, let those who are greedy and hasty to gain wealth learn the hard way.
Once the SEC really cracks down and starts arresting people who participate and orchestrate PnD's they will take care of all of your worries. Do you seriously think the NSA hadn't already collected those communications and that you're outing some massive conspiracy that otherwise would go undetected/without consequence? Let's focus on problems that might actually affect crypto long term and not a few people attempting market manipulation.