NO PROFIT Act

This legislation, known as the NO PROFIT Act, seeks to prevent individuals from profiting from early access to government-related information. It establishes a prohibition against purchasing or selling securities, commodities, or related financial instruments while aware of prioritized covered information . This information is defined as material, nonpublic content obtained through preferential access to social media communications from covered government officials or federal agencies. The bill makes it unlawful for any person to trade on such information before it is generally available, to direct others to trade, or to tip others if they know the recipient is likely to trade. A key aspect is that liability does not require proof of a breach of fiduciary duty, only knowledge that the information was obtained through prioritized access. Violations involving securities are enforceable by the Securities and Exchange Commission, while commodity-related violations fall under the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's jurisdiction. Furthermore, the bill prohibits social media platforms from knowingly offering, selling, or licensing prioritized access to communications from these official accounts. This ensures that information is disseminated equally to the public. Exceptions are made for standard algorithmic content ranking, public health/safety communications to government entities, and certain programmatic access that does not confer an unfair timing advantage. Platforms violating this prohibition face civil penalties equal to the revenue received from providing such preferential access.