Feb 11 - The chairman of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has written to Apple raising questions about allegations that Apple News spotlights content from left-leaning news organizations while downplaying articles from conservative American outlets.
In his letter to Apple’s chief executive, the FTC chair reiterated that the agency cannot compel Apple or any other private company to take political stances or to curate news according to ideological lines. At the same time, he warned that if Apple’s actual practices run counter to its published terms of service or to what consumers reasonably expect, those practices could constitute a violation of the FTC Act.
The letter points to Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts or practices. Included in the chair’s explanation is the definition that a representation is deceptive under the statute if it is material and likely to mislead consumers.
The chair wrote that "multiple studies have found that in recent months Apple News has chosen not to feature a single article from an American conservative-leaning news source, while simultaneously promoting hundreds of articles from liberal publications." Apple News, the chair noted, aggregates stories from a range of newspapers, magazines and digital publishers and curates them within a digital news feed for users.
Those findings, the chair said, raise "serious questions about whether Apple News is acting in accordance with its terms of service and its representations to consumers, as well as the reasonable consumer expectations of the tens of millions of Americans who use Apple News." The letter was posted on the social media platform X.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the letter.
The FTC chairman, a Republican who was appointed to the commission by President Biden and later named its chair in January by President Trump, has in recent months urged the agency to apply its antitrust and consumer-protection authorities to issues raised by conservatives. In past statements, he advocated that the agency examine whether technology platforms misled users or suppressed conservative viewpoints online and whether advertisers coordinated to withdraw funding from platforms such as X over content-related concerns.
The letter to Apple articulates the commission’s approach: it will not direct companies to adopt political positions, but it will scrutinize whether companies’ conduct and representations to consumers are consistent with legal obligations under the FTC Act.
Context and implications
The exchange highlights a regulatory focus on whether platform curation practices match the expectations set by companies’ public terms and statements. The FTC chair’s letter frames the matter as one of consumer protection and potential deceptive practice rather than an attempt by the agency to mandate editorial choices.