Online speech FTC investigates tech censorship, says its un-American and may be illegal "Tech firms should not be bullying their users," Chairman Andrew Ferguson says. Jon Brodkin Feb 20, 2025 4:20 pm | 76 Credit: Getty Images | Jacques Julien Credit: Getty Images | Jacques Julien Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreThe Federal Trade Commission today announced a public inquiry into alleged censorship online, saying it wants "to better understand how technology platforms deny or degrade users' access to services based on the content of their speech or affiliations, and how this conduct may have violated the law.""Tech firms should not be bullying their users," said FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, who was chosen by President Trump to lead the commission. "This inquiry will help the FTC better understand how these firms may have violated the law by silencing and intimidating Americans for speaking their minds."The FTC announcement said that "censorship by technology platforms is not just un-American, it is potentially illegal." Tech platforms' actions "may harm consumers, affect competition, may have resulted from a lack of competition, or may have been the product of anti-competitive conduct," the FTC said.The Chamber of Progress, a lobby group representing tech firms, issued a press release titled, "FTC Chair Rides MAGA 'Tech Censorship' Hobby Horse.""Republicans have spent nearly a decade campaigning against perceived social media 'censorship' by attempting to dismantle platforms' ability to moderate content, despite well-established Supreme Court precedent," the group said. "Accusations of 'tech censorship' also ignore the fact that conservative publishers and commentators receive broader engagement than liberal voices."Last year, the Supreme Court found that a Texas state law prohibiting large social media companies from moderating posts based on a user's "viewpoint" is unlikely to withstand First Amendment scrutiny. The Supreme Court majority opinion said the court "has many times held, in many contexts, that it is no job for government to decide what counts as the right balance of private expressionto 'un-bias' what it thinks biased, rather than to leave such judgments to speakers and their audiences. That principle works for social-media platforms as it does for others."The Chamber of Progress said online platforms compete by adopting different approaches to content moderation and that the FTC is undermining its pro-competition mission "by attacking content moderation." The industry group's website lists 35 corporate partners including Amazon, Apple, Google, and Meta.FTC seeks comment until May 21The FTC issued a Request for Information (RFI) seeking public comment until May 21. "Tech platform users who have been banned, shadow banned, demonetized, or otherwise censored are encouraged to share their comments in response to the RFI," the FTC said. "The FTC is interested in understanding how consumersincluding by potentially unfair or deceptive acts or practices, or potentially unfair methods of competitionhave been harmed by the policies of tech firms."Meta announced in January that it was ending a third-party fact-checking program that has spurred many conservative complaints. Some studies have disputed Republican claims that tech platforms are biased against conservatives."In sum, when there are political asymmetries in misinformation sharing (in either direction), platforms will face a substantial trade-off between reducing the spread of misinformation and being politically balanced in their enforcement... If one political, social or demographic group shares more misinformationbe it liberals, conservatives or some other groupit is not possible to be maximally effective in combatting misinformation without preferentially taking action against members of that group," said an October 2024 analysis in Nature.Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has also slammed Big Tech firms for alleged censorship. He claims that "Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel," along with fact-checking groups and ad agencies that "helped enforce one-sided narratives."The Carr-led FCC could act on Trump's calls to reinterpret Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides legal protection for platforms that host and moderate third-party content. Carr has already launched investigations of news organizations accused of bias against Trump and conservatives.Jon BrodkinSenior IT ReporterJon BrodkinSenior IT Reporter Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry. 76 Comments