According to the SEC quotes, it is. Not that I agree with it, the laws didn't keep up with social networking. As someone said, if a HF guy can push his position on CNBC, why can't thousands of retailers online?
You think the SEC works for the litte guy or against the little guy? The fact that insider trading among those Congressmen and Senators in Congress should not be lost on you. 60 minutes even did a special if you can still find the video on it, Nancy Pelosi was one of those interviewed. There were Republicans in that video too. That was years ago. Now, if you were not paying attention, Barack Obama signed into law a bill that, no longer would members of Congress have to declare and make public stocks they get into, including those with business with Congress. Insider trading anyone? Privilege at its finest and at the highest echelon of powers. This has been going on a while, only you believe in fairy tales. You might get prosecuted by the SEC if you violate any of the rules because you are a small, expendable sardine. The sharks just get fed more.
There's a precedent where the SEC thought otherwise. In the case, the defendants later agreed to a settlement and admitted wrongdoing. The following text is from the link, emphasis mine: https://www.sec.gov/news/press-release/2012-2012-122htm Describing the illegal short squeeze, Gerald W. Hodgkins, Associate Director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement said, “After he took control of an entire issue of high-yield bonds, Falcone kept buying with an eye toward rigging the market and punishing short sellers to settle a score. In the process, Falcone hijacked the market for the bonds and illegally manipulated their price and availability. The Division will continue to police the bond market to make sure it operates as an efficient market, free of the corrosive effects of manipulators such as Falcone.”
Traders place trades without even looking at the risk profile for shorting stocks where you borrow shares from your broker. The risk to the upside is unlimited. You do not know how far a stock will run up and you can be broke real fast. The smarter way is to buy a put option. Your total risk is the cost of the premium, say $500.00. On a worst case scenario, you lose that $500.00 and not a penny more.
You don't think there were (twice/thrice removed) untraceable leaks out of Trumpy's inner circles before one of his classic market moving Tweets? Of course there was. They say Redit shut WSB down out of fear of liability. That's bs. They have about as much liability as Twitter does for the Capitol invasion. The gods are laughing at it all.