WASHINGTON — The chair of the Federal Trade Commission warned Apple CEO Tim Cook this week that he was potentially violating consumer protection law by stifling conservative viewpoints, the latest in the Trump administration’s battle with tech platforms over speech.

The FTC said its chair, Andrew Ferguson, had sent Cook a letter pointing to a study that said Apple’s news aggregation service, Apple News, had been censoring conservative news sources in favor of left-leaning media outlets. The study was by Media Research Center, a media watchdog and nonprofit founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III, a conservative media critic.

Ferguson said in the letter that the “FTC is not the speech police” but that consumers expected Apple News to offer neutral coverage. If conservative voices are being censored, he said, the company has not lived up to promises to its customers.

“These reports 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,” Ferguson wrote.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Punishing Media and Tech

Ferguson and other Trump-appointed leaders of federal agencies have expanded their powers by using consumer protection and other laws to punish media and tech companies for perceived left-leaning bias and for content critical of President Donald Trump.

In January, Ferguson opened an investigation into social media’s censorship of political speech from conservatives. The agency also approved a merger in June of two advertising companies on the unusual condition that they abstain from politically motivated advertising boycotts.

In September, Brendan Carr, chair of the Federal Communications Commission, threatened to pull broadcast licenses of local television stations for airing comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show after Kimmel made remarks about the man charged in the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Carr said Kimmel’s speech was biased against conservatives and did not serve the public interest.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Cecilia Kang/Jim Wilson
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