FCC launches probe into censorship on Big Tech platforms

The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it will investigate alleged censorship on tech platforms, explaining that any wrongdoing would “have violated the law.”

“Tech firms should not be bullying their users,” said FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, recently 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.”

In a press release, the commission said that such censorship, if it exists, is “not just un-American; it is potentially illegal.” The post added that companies might have “unpredictable internal procedures” that cut certain users off while giving them no recourse to respond, which can “harm consumers, affect competition, may have resulted from a lack of competition, or may have been the product of anti-competitive conduct.”

The FTC is now asking citizens to comment through a Request for Information in an effort to find out if the public feels at some point in time they were “banned, shadow banned, demonetized, or otherwise censored” by tech firms and the action seemed either unfair or deceptive. The public will have until May 21, 2025, to respond, after which their comments will analyzed and posted to Regulations.gov, or can be sent in privately.

For many years now, various conservative politicians and pundits have been saying they are not getting fair treatment in the realm of social media, believing that their views are sometimes suppressed, whether through shadow bans or outright bans. One of those people is President Trump, who has filed lawsuits in the past over what he’s said is bias in the tech industry. As for Ferguson, it’s clear where he stands, stating after his nomination he would “end Big Tech’s vendetta against competition and free speech.”

The Chamber of Progress, a lobby group representing tech firms, doesn’t see any wrongdoing. In a press release today, it said the bias theory is politicians “attempting to dismantle platforms’ ability to moderate content.” It added, “Accusations of ‘tech censorship’ also ignore the fact that conservative publishers and commentators receive broader engagement than liberal voices.”

“The FTC is taking aim at the kind of content moderation that prevents online platforms from getting overrun with sludge,” said Chamber of Progress founder and Chief Executive Adam Kovacevich. “Right now online platforms are competing against each other by taking different approaches to content moderation, but this effort would require every platform to look like 4Chan and carry all kinds of hate, spam, and scams.”

Nonetheless, Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg recently admitted that his company was overzealous in the past where its fact-checking teams are concerned, making mistakes during the COVID-19 pandemic and adding moderation mechanisms to the Hunter Biden laptop story. X Corp.’s Elon Musk, the man who opened the so-called Twitter Files investigation, will also no doubt give his blessing to the FCC probe.

Meanwhile, over in Germany, a study released recently by Global Witness said on the run-up to the German elections the platforms TikTok and X both showed “clear algorithmic bias” with the platforms choosing right-leaning content over left-leaning content, although it’s not certain if that was a policy decision. “We must ensure that platforms are transparent about why they recommend certain content,” said the researchers.

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