Sponsors (6)
The bill trades stronger protections against trading on privileged, paid early access and fairer visibility of online content for increased compliance, liability, and legal burdens on platforms, officials, and firms that could raise costs and chill some communications.
Investors (retail and institutional) face less unfair trading because the bill bars trading on information obtained through prioritized access and clarifies what counts as material information, improving market fairness and investor confidence.
General users of social media gain fairer organic visibility because the bill limits paid 'fast-lane' amplification and pay-for-timing, reducing the ability of wealthy actors to buy early or amplified access.
Public health and emergency agencies retain the ability to deliver prioritized, timely notices to the public and first responders without fees, preserving essential emergency communications.
Platforms, traders, and financial firms face substantial new compliance, surveillance, and liability costs to implement prioritized-access, covered-account, and 'knowing' standards, costs that are likely to be passed on to users and taxpayers.
Covered officials and recent former officials (and potentially their families and staff) face expanded regulation of many personal and official accounts for 180 days after leaving office, increasing compliance burdens and limiting speech/privacy.
Legitimate communications may be chilled because senders risk liability if they reasonably should have known a recipient might trade on the information, discouraging normal information-sharing.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Bans platforms from selling prioritized access to covered government accounts and bars trading or tipping on such privileged information before it is public.
Official title: To prohibit the purchase or sale of securities while aware of nonpublic information contained in certain social media accounts controlled by Government officials, and for other purposes.
Introduced August 20, 2026 by James A. Himes · Last progress August 20, 2026
Stops social media platforms from selling or otherwise providing paid early access to communications from covered government accounts and bans trading on information obtained that way before it is publicly available. It makes it illegal to trade, cause trades, or tip others based on such privileged access to prioritized federal information, and it gives the SEC and CFTC enforcement roles for market violations and the Attorney General authority to recover civil penalties from platforms that sell prioritized access. Defines covered accounts, covered officials (including a 180-day post‑service window), prioritized access, and prioritized covered information; creates criminal/civil liability standards based on knowledge of prioritized access rather than fiduciary breach; and sets penalties equal to revenue from the unlawful prioritized access, with rulemaking required by the SEC and CFTC within 180 days.