Sponsors (3)
Official title: 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 3, 2026 by Mark R. Warner · Last progress August 3, 2026
The bill strengthens investor protections and limits paid privileged access to social‑media information—improving fairness and equitable data access—while imposing notable compliance, litigation, and revenue impacts on platforms, firms, and some private individuals that could chill communications and shift costs.
Investors and retail traders: stronger protections against trading on privileged early social-media information, reducing insider advantages and promoting fairer market conditions.
Regulators and market overseers (SEC, CFTC): clearer authority and a 180‑day rulemaking deadline to coordinate rules addressing prioritized access and nonpublic social-media information.
Platforms, officials, and market participants: clearer legal definitions (who counts as a covered official, 'material information', and 'prioritized access') and incorporation of existing statutory terms improve legal consistency and reduce ambiguity about compliance scope.
Platforms, financial firms, agencies, and users: substantially increased compliance, administrative burdens, and near‑term litigation/regulatory uncertainty as agencies update systems and interpret broadly framed rules.
Social‑media companies, partners, and some publishers/nonprofits: loss of a paid prioritized‑access revenue stream and limits on commercial partnerships could reduce platform revenue, threaten related services, or prompt fee increases elsewhere.
Private individuals connected to officials (family members, agents) and platforms: broadened coverage to family members and persons acting at officials' direction expands obligations and potential liability for non‑public parties.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Bans trading on material information obtained via paid or prioritized early access to covered officials' social-media posts and prohibits platforms from selling such prioritized access, with SEC/CFTC and DOJ enforcement.
Prohibits trading on material information obtained from prioritized access to certain government officials' social media communications and bars platforms from knowingly selling or otherwise providing early or preferential access to those communications. It makes it illegal for someone who knows a post was obtained through prioritized access to trade or cause trading in securities, commodities, or contracts tied to speculative information markets, and assigns enforcement to the SEC (for securities) and CFTC (for commodities) with joint rulemaking required within 180 days. Also prevents social media platforms from offering paid early-access services to covered government accounts, while allowing narrow exceptions (non-covered accounts, ordinary algorithmic delivery to individual users, free emergency access for responders, and non-discriminatory programmatic/API access that provides no early timing advantage). Violations of the platform rule carry civil penalties equal to the revenue received for the prioritized access and may be enforced by the Attorney General in federal court.