my understanding if shorting is a company owning the stock gives...

my understanding if shorting is a company owning the stock gives it to a fund manager wanting to short it temporarily with conditions; they have to give it back snd pay a fee to use it

fund manager ir hedge fund then sells the stock creating downward pressure (excess supply) on the price usually in line with a short report ir targeted social media attack that skso causes panic/ distress with investors that they have a dud (further downward pressure)
this rapid fall in price based purely on speculation snd manipulation at this point triggers stop losees causing further excess supply ( downward pressure) as investors stop losses are triggered
but ultimately shorters focus on stocks they think are over vslued and need correction or worse, they hsve heard this overvalued company is cooking the books or being dishonest in someway misrepresenting.

ie with asm were management misrepresenting the speed of development (3 kmps by 2024 says yes). At one point there was a lot of interest in progressing asm rapidly but thats dried up a little and now the commercial's of offtakes are showing merit to progress dubbo

there is then a buying event, hedge funds have yo buy the share back off mkt to return the share to its original owner by the set date. That triggers upward pressure on shareprice. However the hedge funds fo not put out an article thry are buying back, they do not put out an article they got it wrong. So they manipulate the image of the company in the short term harming its reputation in order to then buy back cheaper.
hut the hedge fund can fall back and rely on the truth element of any defamation pursuits.

this then raises the question why do these ceos and executives buy insurance that effectively allows them to be criminals and say whatever they want without personal liability. In a big part its these executives who buy these insurances and are then dishonest yo the mkt which creates the short opportunity. If our executives were honest reputable people...,, and always told the truth...