FTC chair Andrew Ferguson urges Tim Cook to conduct review of Apple News over allegations it prioritizes left-wing outlets

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook on Wednesday expressing concerns over allegations that Apple News has been systemically promoting left-wing news outlets over conservative ones. 

“Today I sent a letter to Tim Cook expressing my concerns about allegations that Apple News has, unbeknownst to its users, systematically promoted news articles from left-wing news outlets and suppressed content from conservative publications,” Ferguson posted on X, along with the letter.

Ferguson urged Cook to “conduct a comprehensive review of Apple’s terms of service and ensure that Apple News’ curation of articles is consistent with those terms and representations made to consumers and, if it is not, to take corrective action swiftly.” The letter noted that under Section 5 of the FTC Act, deceptive acts or practies are prohibited, including “material misrepresentations and material omissions.”

“The First Amendment protects the speech of Big Tech firms,” Ferguson wrote. “But the First Amendment has never extended its protection to material misrepresentations made to consumers, nor does it immunize speakers from conduct that Congress has deemed unfair under the FTC Act, even if that conduct involves speech.”

Earlier this month, the conservative media watchdog Media Research Center released a report that analyzed 620 stories featured in Apple News’ top 20 articles between January 1 and January 21. It found that of the hundreds of stories, not one was from a right-leaning media outlet. 

After the Trump administration took office last year, Ferguson launched an investigation into tech censorship to “better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”