The Federal Trade Commission is turning up the heat on Apple, questioning whether the tech giant's news aggregation platform systematically sidelines conservative voices. In a letter to CEO Tim Cook, FTC chair Andrew Ferguson pointed to research from the Media Research Center alleging that right-leaning outlets rarely crack the top 20 stories in Apple News feeds. The inquiry marks a sharp escalation in regulatory scrutiny of how tech platforms curate content, and it's landing at a particularly sensitive moment for Apple's media ambitions.
The Federal Trade Commission just put Apple on notice about its news curation practices, and the tech giant now faces uncomfortable questions about how it decides what millions of users see in their daily news feeds.
FTC chair Andrew Ferguson fired off a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook this week, zeroing in on claims that Apple News systematically downranks or excludes conservative media outlets. The allegations stem from a report by the Media Research Center, a right-leaning think tank that's been tracking content patterns across major tech platforms. According to their analysis, conservative outlets rarely appear among the top 20 articles surfaced in Apple News feeds, even when those stories are generating significant engagement elsewhere on the web.
The timing couldn't be more delicate for Apple. The company has positioned Apple News as a premium, curated alternative to the chaos of social media feeds, with human editors working alongside algorithms to surface quality journalism. But that editorial layer is now under the microscope. Ferguson's letter suggests the FTC wants to understand whether Apple's curation amounts to viewpoint discrimination, potentially running afoul of consumer protection principles.
This isn't just about politics - it's about power. Apple News reaches over 125 million users monthly, making it one of the most influential news distributors in the United States. Publishers live and die by their placement in that feed. Get featured in the top stories section, and traffic surges. Get buried or excluded, and you're essentially invisible to a massive audience. The Media Research Center claims conservative outlets are consistently getting the latter treatment.
