Thats an old school pumper trick, talking people into putting shares way higher for sale so promo guys have no competition selling their free shares.
Rather than worrying about shorts maybe worry about note holder that has half that $13,000,000 note left to sell. There is at least 100,000,000 more shares coming into market at the rate they dumping. Likely more than that as the lower the price the more shares it will take.