It's a balancing act. Too loose with the regs and
Post# of 72440
The bigger problem is that they go after pump/dumps more often than short/distort. This is usually because pump/dump involves company officers or people holding financial/legal licenses - in other words they have fiduciary duties.
Shorts on the other hand are usually anonymous writers without fiduciary duties on the internet. Almost everyone the SEC goes after had a fiduciary duty. Additionally, the courts have made it clear that (see NNVC vs Pump Stopper aka Mako) Internet writings have strong basis for an opinion defense. This is why NNVC could not uncloak Pump Stopper and likely why CTIX never wasted time suing Mako for obvious libel.