FTC sends warning letter to Apple over political bias in news app

Apple just got dragged into a political mess, and Tim Cook is right in the middle of it. The Federal Trade Commission sent him a letter that basically called Apple News biased and warned that the way it curates news might be illegal.

This came straight from Andrew Ferguson, the guy Trump put in charge of the FTC. Andrew told Tim that Apple might be breaking the law if its news feed favors one side politically without telling users. He brought up Section 5 of the FTC Act, which bans companies from misleading or screwing over consumers.

“The First Amendment protects speech,” Andrew wrote, “but it doesn’t cover lies or unfair practices, even when they involve speech.” He said that if Apple News is hiding or boosting articles based on politics, and that’s not what users signed up for, that’s a serious problem.

Ferguson tells Apple to clean up or face trouble

Andrew said it’s not about controlling what Apple can or can’t say. “We’re not the speech police,” he wrote. But if users are getting a feed they think is neutral, and instead they’re being fed a steady diet of one-sided content, and Apple doesn’t tell them that, then it’s considered a “material omission.” That kind of trick is exactly what the FTC is supposed to stop.

He told Tim to go back and look at Apple’s terms of service and see if their current practices line up. If not, he said the company better fix it fast. “Take corrective action swiftly,” Andrew warned at the end of the letter.

And there’s a reason this letter showed up now. A recent study from the Media Research Center looked at every article posted on Apple News in January.

The numbers were brutal. Out of 620 stories shared between January 1 and January 31, 440 came from left-leaning outlets, 180 were from centrist sources, and zero came from the right. Not one single right-leaning article in a full month. That’s not exactly subtle.

Cook’s Trump ties and crackdown on ICE apps spark backlash

This isn’t the only thing making people mad. Tim’s relationship with Trump has raised eyebrows too. He showed up right up front at Trump’s inauguration last year. Since then, he’s been spotted in multiple meetings with Trump, even praising Trump’s “leadership and focus on innovation.”

Tim also gave him a flashy gift full of 24 karat gold, clearly meant to impress. Then came the really dark moment. After ICE agents killed Alex Pretti in Minnesota, shooting him ten times in the back while he was lying down,

Tim still showed up to the White House for a Melania Trump documentary screening. It happened the same day. Guests were handed popcorn in special boxes and given framed tickets. Tim was all smiles while the internet was on fire over Pretti’s death.

Rick Wilson, a well-known conservative strategist, said, “If you’re a CEO willing to sit in the company of this regime, your ‘shareholder value’ excuse feels pretty blood-soaked tonight.” Later, Tim said he was “heartbroken” and had asked Trump for calm. But the damage was already done.

Under Tim’s leadership, Apple banned an app called ICEBlock.The app let people warn others when ICE sweeps were happening nearby. The Trump administration didn’t like that. So they asked for the app to be taken down.

Apple didn’t waste time. They emailed the developer, Joshua Aaron, and said the app had been removed for containing “objectionable, defamatory, discriminatory, or mean-spirited content.”

None of this worked out for Tim. Even with all the public praise, and the shameless expensive gifting, Trump still doesn’t like him.

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