The city of San Francisco filed a lawsuit on Monday against Trump Media & Technology Group, alleging that the company’s Truth Social API subscription service violates California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) by enabling potential insider trading.
The lawsuit seeks to block the service, which charges between $60,000 and $100,000 per month for early access to posts from President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account and nine other high-profile government officials’ accounts. Subscribers receive these posts before they are publicly available, raising concerns about market manipulation and unfair financial advantages.
Truth Social’s API, launched in August, functions similarly to data feeds offered by other social media platforms, providing real-time access to posts for institutional and retail traders. The service targets high-frequency trading firms with the technology to analyze and act on information within microseconds.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu stated in a press conference that the subscription model creates a “pay-to-play scheme”, giving wealthy subscribers an unfair advantage over ordinary investors. He added that Trump owns approximately 41% of Trump Media and benefits financially from the arrangement.
A Trump Media spokesperson disputed the allegations, calling them “left-wing activist-driven lawsuits” and suggesting critics are attempting to “outsource their legal arguments to AI.”
The lawsuit follows Chiu’s public criticism of the service, which he argues violates securities laws by allowing subscribers to act on non-public, market-moving information before it reaches the general public. The city’s legal action reflects broader debates over social media’s role in financial markets and the regulation of paid data access.
Trump Media has not publicly detailed how the API operates beyond its subscription model, and no regulatory body has yet ruled on whether the service complies with existing financial disclosure laws.