San Francisco Sues Truth Social Over Early Access To Trump’s Posts

Authored by Jill McLaughlin via The Epoch Times,

San Francisco filed a lawsuit Sept. 22 against the parent company of Truth Social over President Donald Trump’s posts, claiming the company created a corrupt business scheme through its $100,000-per-month Truth API plan that allows subscribers to get his posts before they become public.

City Attorney David Chiu claims in the lawsuit, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, that Trump Media and Technology Group created financial gain for Trump Media and the president through the new service.

The paid access, launched on Aug. 1, allows subscribers to pay up to $100,000 a month for early access to 10 high-profile Truth Social accounts, including Trump’s.

Chiu alleges the operation monetizes preferential access to information derived from Trump’s position and access to information unavailable to the general public, allegedly violating the public trust and California’s Unfair Competition Law.

“Trump Media has unlawfully created, priced, marketed, and operated a commercial mechanism that knowingly and willfully facilitates Trump’s use of nonpublic information for private profit,” Chiu wrote in the lawsuit.

The claim also alleged Trump Media violated other federal laws that protect against insider trading, including the prohibition on taking material nonpublic information from a person with a duty of trust and confidence and selling it to people who might trade on it to get an unfair financial advantage.

Chiu also claims the service in unfair by violating the state’s unfair competition law “because the harm they impose greatly outweighs the utility of their conduct.”

“Defendant’s scheme facilitates the appropriation of information held in the public trust for private gain,” Chiu wrote in the lawsuit.

He alleges the practice disadvantages law-abiding businesses and ordinary Californians who participate in financial markets in various ways, including their retirement accounts, pensions, and other public sector funds.

“These everyday investors are placed at a substantial disadvantage to sophisticated firms willing and able to pay extraordinary sums for advanced access to market-moving information,” the lawsuit states.

In an Aug. 10 earnings call, Trump Media’s interim Chief Executive Kevin McGurn told investors the company had signed more than 10 customer agreements for the service.

The city is asking the court to order Truth Social’s parent company to stop offering the Truth API service.

Trump Media, based in Florida, did not respond to a request for comment about the lawsuit.

Trump launched Truth Social in February 2022. He holds the largest share of the company with 41 percent of the stock.

The company’s agreement includes an exclusivity window requiring the president to wait six hours after posting on Truth Social before posting the same message on any other social media platform, according to the lawsuit.

San Francisco’s legal action was the second taken against Truth Social’s early-access product.

Two news organizations – The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation – seeking to shut down the service sued the social media company Aug. 12 in Manhattan federal court making similar claims about the president selling priority access to government information to enrich himself.

The lawsuit targets Trump in his position as president, and Natalie J. Harp as his executive assistant. It also names Daniel Scavino, the White House deputy chief of staff and director of the White House personnel office.

The other accounts offered in the service include those of Vice President JD Vance, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., FBI Director Kash Patel, and the White House.