EFF legal intern Simar Kaur also contributed to this article.
Americans’ First Amendment right to equal access to official government statements is violated by the Trump administration’s use of Truth Social’s preferential treatment scheme, which blocks people who won’t pay Trump’s company up to $100,000 a month early access to government news, EFF
told a federal court.
The First Amendment guarantees that members of the public have equal access to public officials’ public comments, we reminded the court.
EFF filed an
amicus brief
in support of
a motion for a preliminary injunction
in the
lawsuit
filed by The Intercept Media and the Freedom of the Press Foundation against
President Trump
and other administration officials. The lawsuit challenges their use of Truth Social as their primary social media method of making official announcements when that platform provides people who pay a fee for early access to such posts.
Trump uses his Truth Social account as his primary means of communicating with the public, including to announce military operations and ceasefires, foreign and domestic policy, and the removal and appointment of heads of federal agencies. Earlier in the year, Trump Media, which owns Truth Social,
announced “Truth API,”
a service that provides investors early access to “market-moving” messages from the president and other high-ranking officials for a fee of up to $100,000 per month.
The plaintiffs, the Freedom of the Press Foundation and The Intercept, contend that the president and other officials’ preferred use of Truth Social with this service violates the First and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution. The plaintiffs are asking the court to immediately prevent the president from posting on Truth Social in a manner that allows him to profit from selling early access to government information.
EFF’s amicus makes two main points.
First, the brief establishes that social media is pervasively used by government officials and agencies as a
