As far as manipulation I see no evidence of that in the markets.
I'm not defending kwuk's "it's all manipulation" theory, but at the same time pretending like there isn't any manipulation is naive.
For example, yesterday on Finex tons of bids were pulled and tons of asks were added, at the same time, by a single entity, to make it look like there was huge market depth on the upside but very little on the downside. That's pretty clearly intended to manipulate people to act a certain way (and apparently it works on some). Today, it's gone (poof).
Also, the constant barrage of trolls (kwuk included!) on bitcointalk could be considered attempted manipulation.
Finally, the outright, in-your-face manipulation of governments around the world by classifying Bitcoin and assigning certain regulations on it's use.
If there is a market, someone is going to attempt to manipulate it to their favor. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with that (until force is involved, i.e. government regulation).
As far as disinformation operations that seek to vilify BTC or manipulate my opinion with fear... Well good luck keeping a good idea down. All I have to do is ignore baseless nonsense and act logically. I ask myself "Is bitcoin still the fastest, cheapest, and most secure way to pay anyone anywhere?" As long as that is true bitcoin is worth trillions in USD.
As to the last point about manipulation by governments that can be an issue, but not a bitcoin issue. Some governments outright steal via taxation. Bitcoin offers victims of economic oppression an option to opt out more than a way for such states to victimize them.
