Media groups sue Trump over paid access to public social media posts

The publication The Intercept and the nonprofit Freedom of the Press Foundation have filed a federal lawsuit against United States President Donald Trump to block his social media service from selling advance access to his posts.

Court filings on Wednesday argue that the subscription-based service would restrict access to matters of public interest.

“This scheme is profoundly corrupt,” the complaint reads. “The president stands to gain financially by giving ‘market-moving’ government information to those who are willing and able to pay his personal company.”

The lawsuit cites the right to a free press under the US Constitution and argues that the plan would violate the First Amendment’s implicit guarantees of “equal access to the President’s public announcements”.

It also claims that the subscription service would run afoul of the Fifth Amendment’s protections, which it says restrict the government from charging arbitrary sums to access government information.

The complaint names Trump in an official capacity, along with White House aide Natalie Harp and Deputy Chief of Staff Daniel Scavino.

The lawsuit centres on Truth API, which was announced in July and launched on August 1.

The subscription service, a product of the Trump Media and Technology Group, charges subscribers between $60,000 and $100,000 a month for real-time access to posts from Trump and other prominent accounts on Truth Social, the group’s social media platform.