Overview
- Ferguson’s letter cites research, including a Media Research Center review of 620 prominently featured January stories that found 440 from left-leaning outlets, 180 centrist and none from right-leaning sources, using AllSides ratings.
- The FTC said practices that promote or suppress content based on ideology may break the law if they conflict with Apple’s terms or reasonable consumer expectations, stressing the agency is not the “speech police.”
- Apple has issued a general statement that Apple News provides access to more than 3,000 publications—including Fox News and the New York Post—and that users can follow or block specific outlets, but it has not offered a detailed rebuttal to the letter.
- Apple News combines human editorial picks with algorithmic surfacing and comes pre-installed on Apple devices, putting its curation in focus as the FTC frames the issue as a consumer-protection matter.
- The warning follows widespread attention to the MRC findings, with President Trump sharing coverage, and comes as Ferguson continues broader scrutiny of tech platforms’ moderation and disclosure practices.