FTC Chair Warns Apple News’ Left-Wing Curation May Violate Consumer Protection Laws

Federal Trade Commission Chair Andrew Ferguson sent a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook warning that Apple News may be violating consumer protection laws by suppressing right-leaning media outlets on its online news platform.

Ferguson’s letter to Cook came one day after a New York Post report cited the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, which analyzed 620 stories featured on Apple News and found that not one was published by right-leaning publications.

NYPost’s report was shared by President Trump on his Truth Social account early Wednesday.

By Wednesday evening, FCC Chair Brendan Carr said Ferguson’s letter was “exactly right.”

The letter 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.”

Carr wrote on X, “Apple has no right to suppress conservative viewpoints in violation of the FTC Act.”

FTC Chairman Ferguson is exactly right.

Apple has no right to suppress conservative viewpoints in violation of the FTC Act. https://t.co/6eHtm2CvIk

— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) February 11, 2026

Ferguson’s letter outlined Apple’s obligations under Section 5 of the FTC Act, which “prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices,” 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.”

“As an American citizen, I abhor and condemn any attempt to censor content for ideological reasons,” he added. “Such efforts, whether taken to appease overzealous activists, at the behest of foreign governments, or simply to advance the political views of Silicon Valley elites, stifle the free exchange of ideas, manipulate the public discourse and are inconsistent with American values.”

About one year ago, Ferguson launched an inquiry into tech censorship to “better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds.”

Let’s not forget that Big Tech and governments (even foreign ones) put ZeroHedge through the censorship gauntlet. Yet here we are, and we’ve survived.

Not surprising at all. Cook and his team should focus on building better iPhones and delivering better products, rather than steering users toward toxic left-wing narratives that have proven harmful to the country.