The new head of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), appointed by President Donald Trump, is preparing to launch an investigation into whether tech giants including Meta✴ Platforms and Uber Technologies have been “censoring” their users.
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FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson said his agency was seeking public comment on “censorship by tech giants,” which he described as “un-American” and “arguably illegal.” President Donald Trump invited the heads of big tech companies to his inauguration, raising speculation that he would soften the White House’s stance on them in a second term. Republicans alleged under Democrat Joe Biden that social media platforms censored conservative content; several incidents were investigated and conservative states passed laws banning social media censorship. Trump’s Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook accounts were suspended after the January 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol, but his pages have since been restored.
The actions of a wide range of technology platforms, including social media, video and photo sharing services, ride-sharing, event planning, internal or external communications, and other online services, are up for public comment. The agency is interested in what “harm” the platforms have caused to consumers by restricting their ability to speak out. There have been few precedents for applying consumer protection and antitrust laws to online platforms for removing posts or accounts. American law gives social media operators considerable latitude to remove user content at their own discretion: in 2023, the Supreme Court upheld the rules governing these relations, set out in Section 320 of the Communications Decency Act.
Ferguson leads the FTC, and it’s unclear how he plans to use antitrust and consumer protection laws to combat what he characterizes as censorship. But his announcement suggests the agency is making cracking down on tech companies a priority. The commission is currently split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, but another Republican, Mark Meador, is expected to join soon; his nomination is scheduled for a hearing on Feb. 25.
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