Not everybody will be protected from this, but the loss for individual investors is just a fraction compared to the loss for institutional investors. Institutions have been doing this to individuals for a long time (to a lesser extent, but they have been doing it). Now that the shoe is on the other foot, it's a big deal that the squeeze is happening.
NKLA is another great example. Hindenburg Research made a fortune off of their hit piece on NKLA. In the process, tons of individual investors got screwed. Who cried foul? Definitely not regulators. No hedge fund swooped in and offered billions to individual investors that bought NKLA at the peak. Everybody that profited took their money and said, "Thanks." Minus the "thanks." Individual investors should be able to do the same thing that massive hedge funds are doing. It's only fair.
Let. These. Hedge. Funds. Burn.