San Francisco sues Trump Media for selling early access to Trump posts
San Francisco sues Trump Media for selling early access to Trump posts
旧金山起诉特朗普媒体公司，指控其出售特朗普帖子的提前访问权
San Francisco is suing the Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company behind Truth Social, for selling early access to President Donald Trump’s posts on the social media site. The lawsuit, filed today in California state court, alleges that the Truth API feed is a “corrupt business scheme” that violates both California’s Unfair Competition Law and federal ethics and anti-corruption laws that prohibit insider trading.
旧金山市正在起诉“真相社交”（Truth Social）的母公司——特朗普媒体与技术集团（Trump Media & Technology Group），指控其出售该社交媒体平台上唐纳德·特朗普总统帖子的提前访问权。该诉讼于今日在加利福尼亚州法院提起，指控“真相API”（Truth API）订阅服务是一项“腐败的商业计划”，违反了加州的《反不正当竞争法》以及禁止内幕交易的联邦道德和反腐败法律。
White House spokesperson Davis Ingle recently called Truth Social the “most powerful and popular social media platform in the world.” While the latter part of that statement is objectively untrue based on any credible estimates — in fact, Truth Social traffic has declined over the last year — Trump often makes high-stakes announcements in his capacity as president on the platform, and his posts there have a clear effect on the global economy. To capitalize on this, Trump Media recently launched Truth API, a service that charges select customers $100,000 a month for early access to the 10 most influential accounts on Truth Social, including Trump’s and those of other White House officials. Trump Media’s interim CEO, Kevin McGurn, acknowledged as much in his announcement of Truth API, saying that “markets already move on Truth Social posts.”
白宫发言人戴维斯·英格尔（Davis Ingle）最近称“真相社交”是“世界上最强大、最受欢迎的社交媒体平台”。尽管根据任何可靠的估算，后半句说法在客观上是不真实的——事实上，过去一年“真相社交”的流量一直在下降——但特朗普经常以总统身份在该平台上发布重大公告，他在那里的帖子对全球经济有着明显的影响。为了利用这一点，特朗普媒体公司最近推出了“真相API”，该服务向特定客户每月收取10万美元，以获得“真相社交”上最具影响力的10个账户（包括特朗普本人及其他白宫官员的账户）的提前访问权。特朗普媒体公司临时首席执行官凯文·麦格恩（Kevin McGurn）在宣布该API时承认了这一点，称“市场已经在根据‘真相社交’上的帖子做出反应”。
The San Francisco lawsuit cites several examples of this, some of which took place after the launch of Truth API. On August 21st, for example, Trump posted that the federal government was going to “lower the price of ground beef for working families” by exempting some ground beef imports from tariffs. When the market opened a few hours later, cattle futures declined significantly, according to the complaint.
旧金山的诉讼引用了几个例子，其中一些发生在“真相API”推出之后。例如，8月21日，特朗普发帖称联邦政府将通过免除部分碎牛肉进口关税来“降低工薪家庭的碎牛肉价格”。据诉状称，几小时后市场开盘时，牛期货价格大幅下跌。
“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,” the complaint alleges. The San Francisco suit alleges that Truth API is a way of making the floundering Trump Media — which reported a net loss of more than $238 million earlier this year — profitable.
诉状称：“特朗普媒体公司非法创建、定价、营销并运营了一种商业机制，该机制明知且蓄意促使特朗普利用非公开信息谋取私利。”旧金山的诉讼指控称，“真相API”是让陷入困境的特朗普媒体公司实现盈利的一种手段，该公司今年早些时候报告的净亏损超过2.38亿美元。
Per his agreement with Trump Media, Truth Social has a six-hour exclusivity window on Trump’s posts, meaning he can’t post the same material elsewhere in that time frame. Even before the launch of Truth API, Trump’s Truth Social profile was extremely valuable for investors — so valuable that the company has sought to capitalize on it. The San Francisco complaint cites reports of hedge fund executives who say they feel pressured to buy the service even though they think it’s legally risky.
根据他与特朗普媒体公司的协议，“真相社交”对特朗普的帖子拥有六小时的独家发布权，这意味着他在该时间段内不能在其他地方发布相同的内容。即使在“真相API”推出之前，特朗普的“真相社交”个人资料对投资者来说就极具价值——价值高到公司一直试图将其变现。旧金山的诉状引用了对冲基金高管的报告，他们表示，尽管认为该服务存在法律风险，但仍感到有压力去购买它。
“It’s a pay-to-play scheme for early access to the president’s market-moving government statements,” San Francisco city attorney David Chiu said in a Tuesday press conference. “In today’s markets, early access means millions of dollars. This business scheme has turned public trust into private property.” Beyond violating insider trading laws, the suit claims, Truth API disadvantages everyday investors by paywalling financially valuable information.
“这是一种付费参与的计划，旨在提前获取总统那些能左右市场的政府声明，”旧金山市检察官邱信福（David Chiu）在周二的新闻发布会上表示。“在今天的市场上，提前访问权意味着数百万美元。这种商业计划将公众信任变成了私有财产。”诉讼称，除了违反内幕交易法外，“真相API”还通过对具有财务价值的信息设置付费墙，使普通投资者处于不利地位。
Trump Media hasn’t disclosed its list of Truth API clients, but the company has said it plans on marketing the product to AI companies and large news organizations. The city has asked a judge to forbid Trump Media from offering Truth API or similar services, and to impose a fine of $2,500 per violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law.
特朗普媒体公司尚未披露其“真相API”客户名单，但该公司表示计划向人工智能公司和大型新闻机构推销该产品。旧金山市已请求法官禁止特朗普媒体公司提供“真相API”或类似服务，并对违反加州《反不正当竞争法》的每一次违规行为处以2500美元的罚款。
This isn’t the first time Trump has been sued over Truth API. In August, The Intercept and the Freedom of the Press Foundation filed a joint lawsuit in a New York federal court over the product, which it called “extraordinary, corrupt, and unconstitutional.”
这并不是特朗普第一次因“真相API”被起诉。今年8月，《拦截》（The Intercept）和新闻自由基金会（Freedom of the Press Foundation）在纽约联邦法院联合提起诉讼，称该产品“极其恶劣、腐败且违宪”。