Can short selling depress prices?

Keep in mind a lot of exchange rules and power to ban short selling came into force after the flash crash. There are also "breakers" so to say that temporarily halt short selling if an instrument falls by a certain amount.

@ Rocky, yes short selling can depress prices in the context that if you own the stock and want to sell, and I don't own the stock and want to sell it at well, now there are twice the numbers of sellers in the market.